West Sussex Children's Home Rated Inadequate

A West Sussex children’s home has been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

Teasel Close Children’s Home, in Crawley, was inspected in May and a report published this month

Inspectors reported ‘widespread failures’ at the home, with the care, experience and educational progress of the children described as poor, and their welfare ‘not promoted or safeguarded’.

The report said children had smoked cannabis in the home and garden, openly used vapes around the house and that there was a lack of respect between children and staff.

One child spent most of their days missing, only returning in the early hours.

Only a handful of children are staying at the home, which was rated ‘outstanding’ in 2021.

Following its last inspection in 2023, when it was rated ‘good’, the home’s manager and responsible individual left and a new senior management team was put in place.

The report said the team had implemented an action plan to support improvements.

A county council spokesman said:

“We accept Ofsted’s findings. The service has already implemented a comprehensive action plan, and having reviewed this, Ofsted decided not to take any enforcement action due to their confidence in the action plan and the pace of its implementation.

“However, we also feel that it is important for the report’s content to be understood within the context of the challenges that we, like all local authorities, face nationally with provision of support for our children in care, and restrictions on local authorities in terms of our duties and responsibilities compared with private care providers.

“West Sussex County Council manages six children’s homes and supports or cares for up to 45 children and young people in these homes at any one time. This number has grown by approximately 30% since 2019, making the provision of care increasingly challenging.

“Like all local authorities we are operating in a constrained placement market with different duties and responsibilities to private care providers. This can result in additional challenges, especially when providing support and care for our children with the greatest levels of complexity and need, for whom other providers often refuse to care for.

“We are investing over £1m into the Teasel Close site in the near future as part of a wider £10m investment across our children’s residential estate. Refurbishments at Teasel Close are the final part of this programme.

“Alongside the challenges, there are also many positive recent examples of our children making progress while living at Teasel Close as well as the steps we’ve taken to address the issues such as the creation of a new service development plan to look at where support for our children can be enhanced.

“We have spoken to our children at the home to talk through the findings of the report with them, help them understand the context and apologise for where we should have done better for them.

“Since this inspection Ofsted have re-visited the home where we have been able to evidence the pace of change and the improvements already achieved.

“We look forward to welcoming Ofsted back to the home for our next full inspection later this year, where we will be able to further evidence sustained improvements.

“We continue to be committed to putting our children and young people first and ensuring that our homes keep them safe from vulnerable situations and help them achieve their full potential.”