Young offenders will be pulled out of England’s first secure school amid concerns “vulnerable” doors that “can’t withstand somebody trying to barge their way through” won’t be replaced for months.
Schools Week revealed in June how the problems at Oasis Restore, in Kent, meant youngsters could move “more freely” around the site, prompting some to make “weapons out of everyday items” for fear of their safety.
Ofsted inspected after receiving “concerns over children’s safety and wellbeing” at the school, run by the charity that sponsors the Oasis academy trust.
Now Oasis intends to move youngsters from the facility to other youth custody settings until the safety issue is resolved. They will also pause any new placements – just 12 months after opening.
It is the latest blow to the prototype scheme, dubbed “a revolution in youth justice”, after opening four years late and £35 million over budget.
Government wants secure schools and similar smaller units to replace secure training centres and young offender institutions.
But despite £40 million being spent on restoring the former Medway Secure Training Centre for the new school, Oasis boss Steve Chalke told Schools Week: “We’re accountable under children’s home regulations to provide safety. That can’t be done with the present infrastructure.”
New doors delay ‘increases risk levels’
Oasis Restore said the safety concerns raised by Ofsted were over doors at the facility which it had discovered “can’t withstand somebody trying to barge their way through them”.
Ofsted inspectors said this meant youngsters could move “more freely” in some areas, leading some to create their own weapons “out of everyday items after the issue” because “they have not always felt safe recently”.
The fit-out of the facility was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The issues are now being rectified by the government department.
The secure school was opened as part of a MoJ pilot, with a view to housing young offenders in custody for serious crimes.
“The internal doors that were fitted are not secure,” Chalke added. “They’re poorly designed and not built to spec…and so are vulnerable.
“The young people we care for are very complex and can become dysregulated. What that’s demonstrated is the doors can’t withstand somebody trying to barge their way through them.”
The problem is said to impact over 150 doors. However all external doors and those leading to children’s rooms are of different designs that “are secure”, Chalke added.
When the issue first emerged in February, the MoJ and Oasis hoped to secure replacements before the end of the summer.
However, procurement delays mean the new doors are now unlikely to be delivered before the end of 2025.
Pause a ‘proactive’ step
“The delay…increases the levels of risk and anxiety for our children and staff,” Chalke added.
“Therefore, we are proactively taking the difficult decision that, until our doors are replaced, we will pause all placements at Restore, and our current children will be relocated to other settings within the youth custody estate.”
Describing this as a “preventative move”, Chalke said this means “no children will be homed at Oasis Restore from early September until the first wave of new doors are installed”.
The facility is inspected under both the social care and education inspection frameworks. Its only education inspection, published in January, found “reasonable progress” was being made in all areas.
But the school has twice been rated ‘requires improvement to be good’ after social care inspections this year. The latest report, released last month, downgraded the facility to ‘inadequate’ in the ‘leadership and management’ subcategory.
However, the report did find youngsters felt safe after staff introduced workarounds, including cutting the number of young offenders at the facility from around 20 to 10 to minimise risk.
Issue ‘sucking up staff time’
Chalke stressed the “weapons” made by youngsters were shards of wood from broken doors and were handed into staff.
He acknowledged “we have to get better and better”, but said “all” his staff’s attention “has been sucked up by the doors issue, leaving no time for the other things”.
Chalke added the secure school was a “fantastic, revolutionary idea of creating an integrated therapeutic educational and caring space in youth custody for some of the most complex and vulnerable young people in the country”.
Secure schools were first recommended in the 2016 Taylor review of the youth justice system, which called for education to be central to the government’s response to help rehabilitate children in custody.
The government defines the facilities as “schools with security”, rather than “prisons with education”. The MoJ initially pledged to open two, but Oasis Restore is currently the only one.
The MoJ has been approached for comment.
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