Even seasoned professionals were horrified when they read the Ofsted report in which a brand new children’s home in Bolton shut down in January. Inspectors had discovered one child had been living in such “squalid” conditions that flies were hatching in his bedroom, which the boy had not left for four months.
The obvious questions followed: how did the private provider, Achieve Care Homes Ltd, receive its licence from Ofsted in August 2021, only to have it taken away in January 2022? What due diligence was done on the owners to ensure they were fit and proper people to take care of some of society’s most vulnerable children?
As the Guardian began investigating Achieve Care Homes, particularly its main director, the former pub landlord Robert McGuinness, 34, it became clear at least one red flag had been missed which could have questioned his suitability to run a company caring for vulnerable children.
In September 2020, Ofsted inspected an independent school he was trying to open in Bolton and found it unsuitable on many fronts.
The school, Stanley House, never officially opened, but is instead run to this day as an “alternative provision” (AP), along with a sister “training centre” in nearby Bury. Neither are registered with Ofsted and nor do they have to be, as they only provide part-time education for children in years 9 to 11 (aged 14 to 16) who have been excluded from mainstream education.
This is something Ofsted is lobbying government to change. “We would like to see the current system urgently reviewed. We believe that all AP settings should be registered, regardless of how many hours they are open or how many children attend,” said a spokesperson.
Currently, Ofsted only inspects individual buildings – children’s homes and schools –rather than private providers. This can make it difficult to join the dots when the same people open new premises using different companies.
Between January 2014 and March 2022, McGuinness was a director of seven companies, all with similar names. All of his child-focused businesses cater for the most marginalised young people in society – those who have been taken away from their parents and into care or those excluded from mainstream education.
Though these children are the most difficult to look after, they also offer a big money-making opportunity. Some private children’s home providers now charge £12,000 a week to care for children with the most complex needs. These, as in the Bolton home, may be children who need extremely close supervision by highly trained staff.
Bernie Brown, director of children’s services for Bolton Council, wants a total rethink of the way children’s social care and educational settings are regulated.
She said a key flaw, in her eyes, is that “Ofsted regulates buildings, not the providers. There’s no regulation of the providers”. She wants to know why Ofsted effectively stopped McGuinness from opening his private school in Bolton, and yet approved a children’s home by another of his companies within a year.
On Tuesday, planning officers at Bolton council approved an application from Achieve Care Homes to turn a block of flats into eight studios for care leavers aged 16-18, plus a warden. There was no opportunity for Brown or any councillors to object: the building was not changing use and so was a “permitted development” to be given automatic approval.
Achieve will not have to register with Ofsted, as the residents will all be at least 16 and not receiving care (thus not meeting the legal definition of a children’s home). The government recently announced a crackdown on unregulated provision, but Ofsted will only start inspecting them in 2023.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We do everything that we can within the legislation and the resources that we have to ensure the suitability of a provider to register a children’s home. However, that legislation is focused on the roles of the registered manager and the person who supervises them. There are limits on the checks that we can apply to the business owners. And company structures can be very opaque and complex. For example, home managers undergo criminal record (DBS) checks – but business owners are not eligible for these checks.
“For several years now we have consistently said that the Care Standards Act is not fit for purpose. There are many areas that need reform in order to respond to the needs of children and the reality of the world today. It is simply not good enough that the ownership of children’s homes has such limited oversight.”
A lawyer for the Achieve Training Centre Community Interest Company said: “There is no reason why our client’s care division should be affected by our client’s education division, being different divisions of our client’s business.”
