The Times - UK (2022-05-25)

the times | Wednesday May 25 2022 7

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intends to close the home permanently.

Manyara was criticised for lacking the

“required skills to keep children safe”

after safeguarding agencies found they

had not been informed that a child had

alleged assault by staff.

household items used

as weapons

Inspectors found that Manyara’s home

relied on employees who were not suit-

ably vetted and “do not have the re-

quired qualifications, skills or experi-

ence”. The home was in poor condition,

and recommendations from a fire risk

assessment were not followed for

months.

Similar concerns about recruitment

practices and staff who lacked appro-

priate training and qualifications were

highlighted at many homes run by new

or inexperienced owners. Many strug-

gled to recruit experienced children’s

home managers, and the crucial post

was unfilled at several homes.

The challenges are exacerbated

when staff are asked to look after

children with complex behavioural

problems, cases that command higher

fees.

Decisions to admit children who are

poorly matched can also have dis-

astrous consequences, inspection re-

ports show. Mutual Care Ltd was set up

by Paul King, who worked in recruit-

ment before moving into property de-

velopment, and Jason Pincott, the

MPs call for tighter checks

Continued from page 1

providers, and called for a windfall tax

on the largest companies.

Other problems at homes identified

by The Times as being run by new or

inexperienced owners have included:

6 Children were removed from a home

set up by a former bar owner after in-

spectors found that one boy had not

bathed, changed his clothes or had a

home-cooked meal for four months.

6 Staff at a home in southwest England

failed to prevent children from distrib-

uting cannabis, abusing an animal, ac-

cessing pornography and using aero-

sols to set fires.

6 Ofsted was not informed when a staff

member was accused of hitting a child

at a Lincolnshire home set up by a pub

singer and his wife.

6 Staff at one home did not act when a

child regularly went missing and re-

turned under the influence of drugs.

MPs, campaigners and experts called

last night for stricter checks on child-

ren’s home owners. Anne Longfield,

chairwoman of the Commission on

Young Lives and former children’s com-

missioner for England, said the market

was “so broken that it has become a li-

cence to print money”.

Josh MacAlister, chairman of the

independent review of children’s social

care, said there were “real concerns

about the quality of some children’s

homes, and the suitability of some of

those running them”. His review,

published on Monday, called for Ofsted

to have a role in overseeing the market,

and for local authorities to collaborate

to improve their bargaining power and

fund publicly owned homes.

A shortage of children’s home places

has pushed the average fee to more

than £4,000 a week a child. Directors of

companies running homes must be vet-

ted. Ofsted cannot ask them to submit

to a criminal record check, but it re-

quires a full employment history.

Smith, whose 14-year term in 1997

was reduced to 11 years on appeal, co-

owns PBS Care Homes Ltd. A sentence

of that length is never considered spent.

PBS Care Homes Ltd did not respond

to a request for comment but Smith

resigned as a director on the day he was

contacted by The Times. He is no longer

a “person with significant control”, but

the firm has not filed paperwork to say

he has relinquished his shares.

Ofsted said: “We do everything that

we can within the legislation to ensure

the suitability of a provider to register a

children’s home. However... there are

limits on the checks that we can apply

to the business owners.”

operations manager of a local author-

ity. Pincott, who has a degree in social

work, also serves as the responsible

individual.

An inspection report last September

found staff had failed to prevent child-

ren from “distributing cannabis, abus-

ing an animal, inhaling aerosols and ac-

cessing pornography”. The home

was criticised for accepting

three children who were

poorly matched and who

had ended up harming

each other and going

missing together.

While missing, they

had obtained knives

and “horse medica-

tion”.

Staff had failed to

stop children repeatedly

damaging the home, and

household items were being

used as weapons. They had access

to cigarettes and lighters despite one

child’s risk assessment saying he had a

history of setting fires.

After having its registration suspend-

ed, the home was redecorated, but it is

still categorised as requiring improve-

ment. The company, which has re-

ceived more than £1.8 million in fees

since late 2019, did not respond to a re-

quest for comment.

Even when things go wrong, it is rare

for children to be immediately removed

from a home. A provider might be pre-

vented from admitting more children

for a period, but often local authorities,

facing a national shortage in places,

prefer to work with failing homes to try

to improve them.

Derbyshire county council said it

took this approach with Pathways

Residential Child Care Ltd, set up by an

immigration lawyer without in-

dustry experience. One of the

company’s homes is rated

good, but another was

twice temporarily pre-

vented from taking

more children

because it could not

keep them safe.

The regulator

found those living

there frequently went

missing. One child was

taking lifts from strangers,

and birth families had “raised

concerns about unsafe restraint

practice”.

Pathways said its three directors had

relevant experience, including adopt-

ing and giving youths legal advice. Its

majority owner said they had been let

down by “poor management”.

The council, which paid the company

£45,000 a week, said it preferred to

work with providers to improve the

standard of care when concerns are

raised but had eventually moved the

child to another home in May 2021. The

home has now closed.

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News

home boss, few questions asked

No answer to sharp business practice

Analysis good. Fees have been

growing steadily, up

from an average of

£2,800 a week in 2013

to more than £4,000.

The most complex

cases can command

as much as £10,000.

A report by the

Competition and

Markets Authority

(CMA) published

earlier this year found

that the largest

private suppliers were

making excessive

profits and that

Britain had

“sleepwalked” into a

dysfunctional market.

The government

commissioned an

independent care

review led by Josh

MacAlister, the

founder of the social

work charity

Frontline, to propose

reforms. It reported

back on Monday and

called for a wide array

of measures aimed at

reducing the numbers

ending up in

children’s homes.

These included a call

for increased funding

for early interventions

with struggling

families and a

recruitment drive to

find more foster

parents.

The report also

suggested the

government should

impose a windfall tax

on the largest

providers because

they had enjoyed

bumper profits after

number of children’s

homes.

“For several years

now we have

consistently said that

the Care Standards

Act is not fit for

purpose,” an Ofsted

spokeswoman said. “It

is simply not good

enough that the

ownership of

children’s homes has

such limited

oversight.”

She said changes

are “urgently

required to address

the gap between our

regulatory powers

and the state of the

children’s homes

market”.

In its latest annual

report, Ofsted stated:

“No organisation has

the responsibility of

overseeing the

‘market’ for children’s

home places in the

same way that the

Care Quality

Commission does for

adults, providing

important safeguards

against business

failure or

withdrawal.” It said

that “with large

providers that operate

a considerable

proportion of

provision, this is a

serious gap”.

The care review

called for legislation

to give the regulator

new powers “to access

and interrogate the

financial records and

accounts of providers”.

capitalising on

demand.

However, experts

argue that children’s

homes remain far less

regulated than those

running adult care

facilities.

Kathy Evans, chief

executive of Children

England, said: “Ever

since the provision of

state care for children

turned into a

commercial

marketplace there has

been a glaring lack of

proper oversight and

regulation of the

market itself, and the

ownership of care

companies.

“Quality inspection

has historically

focused on the homes

themselves, and the

employees who run

them, but scrutinising

the commercial

practices and

ownership structures

of care-providing

companies lies largely

beyond the current

capacity and statutory

remit of Ofsted.”

Ofsted vets

company directors

and senior managers

at children’s homes to

ensure they are of

“integrity and good

character” but has

expressed frustration

at the limits of its

powers, particularly

as large private

equity-backed chains

with complicated

corporate structures

purchase a growing

C

hildren’s

groups and

campaigners

have

criticised

the provision of

residential care for

young people as a

“broken market” with

local authorities

reliant on providers

looking to make a

profit (Billy Kenber

writes).

In the 1970s and

early 1980s, children’s

homes were largely

run by local

authorities or

charities but over

time many have sold

off their provision and

the market has now

become dominated by

private providers.

This has been

exacerbated in recent

years by private

equity moving into

the sector and seeking

to rapidly build up

large chains.

In the 2020-

financial year there

was a 10 per cent

increase in the

number of children’s

homes compared with

a 7 per cent increase

the previous year. Of

the 2,301 homes

registered with Ofsted

in August last year,

480 — more than

20 per cent — were

rated either

inadequate or as

requiring

improvement to be

Lewis McCoy, far

left, an electrician

and part-time DJ,

set up a home, left,

where a child went

missing for six

days due to poor

staff decisions;

John Smith,

circled, was

deemed fit and

proper despite a

conviction for drug

smuggling;

Mahesh Mehan

drives a McLaren

supercar; Robert

McGuinness, inset

below, ran a home

that was closed

immediately when

inspectors visited

Le

le

a s w m d s J c