Shocking revelations concerning a children's home in Lancashire run by the private company Gracewells Care Ltd, from an Ofsted inspection report uploaded today files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/501599…
This home is for three children who have been the victims of criminal and sexual exploitation. It is clear that they continue to be exploited while living here. Ofsted's damning verdict: Image
This child is just 13. Image
This child is 16. Image
Where are the home's carers? Well.. Image
And... Image
Children subjected to physical harm by untrained, unsupervised staff who, or may not, have a DBS check. Who knows? Who cares? Image
This home registered in May during the first wave of the pandemic, even though it was/is clearly not fit for purpose. This isn't scientific, but my insight is that in the rush to find homes for children, bad things have happened.
Remember that these are the Ofsted regulated homes. There are also many new providers of unregulated accommodation since the pandemic began.
I have not come across Gracewells before and I can't find out much about them. There is certainly nothing to suggest experience with children who are victims of criminal and sexual abuse.
Provision of children's home (regulated and unregulated) is like the wild west right now. With average weekly fees of more than £4,000 per child, anything goes.

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More from @MartinBarrow

28 Jan
State of this children's home in Lancashire, run by the private company Care 4 Children Residential Services Ltd: this Ofsted report was uploaded today files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/501600…
Firstly, it is a shit hole (excuse the language, but...) Image
A child's clothes and shoes are taken away to stop him from running away. Image
Read 12 tweets
28 Jan
"The single factor most closely associated with positive outcomes for children is meaningful, lifelong connections to family." Exceptional work by, among others, @FamilyRightsGp and @ReesCentre frg.org.uk/involving-fami…
Worth pointing out that #LifelongLinks is needed now more than ever because so many children and young people in care are being sent to live many miles from their birth families and other significant people in their lives.
More than 60% of children and young people in children's homes are living at distance from their families; many are hundreds of miles away and have moved town multiple times.
Read 6 tweets
27 Jan
Another children's home which was registered early in the pandemic has been found by Ofsted to be putting children and young people at risk. This home in Lincolnshire is run by the private company Aspiration House Ltd.
files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/501599…
Particular concerns around improper use of restraint and frequent intervention by police officers in the home. Image
This one is dedicated to @BarbradyC who is clearly a big fan of my work...
Read 4 tweets
24 Nov 20
Today the Children’s Commissioner will give a speech, in which she will say the care system for children and young people is “on the edge of a precipice”. You can read about it here 1/ theguardian.com/society/2020/n…
The speech addresses the challenges set out in three reports published by the Children’s Commissioner last week. You can find them here 2/ childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2020/11/11/tho…
Privatisation of children’s services, including foster care and children’s homes, is not the only concern. But it is central to much that is failing. 3/
Read 12 tweets
23 Nov 20
How it works: this guest blog in @cypnow is by Ed Nixon and Jonathan Stanley, who have championed private providers of children's services for many years. This is not disclosed in the blog...1/
cypnow.co.uk/blogs/article/…
...which is mostly a rant about the Children's Commissioner's recent report into failings in the care system, which was critical or privatisation.

Who'd have thunk it?
Also, the self-styled 'National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care' is not national, nor a centre. Essentially, another vehicle for the Independent Children's Homes Association lobby group.
But you knew that already.
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov 20
This is how broken the care system for children is.

256 children in care from Wakefield have been sent to live outside the district.

356 children in the care of other councils have been sent to live in Wakefield.

This is the impact of privatisation.

wakefieldexpress.co.uk/education/more…
More than 600 children removed from their family homes, who must also say goodbye to everything they have ever known, through no fault of their own.
Local authorities must be held to account.
So too must @theNAFP and the Independent Children's Homes Association, whose members do this for profit. Keeping children close to their birth families makes less profit.
Read 5 tweets

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