Experts demand major overhaul of safeguarding system to protect children with disabilities from abuse at children’s homes

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published recommendations to improve the care, welfare and outcomes for children with disabilities and complex health needs living in residential settings.

Last October, the panel published a review into very serious abuse to a significant number of children with disabilities and complex health needs at 3 residential special schools registered as children’s homes (Fullerton House, Wilsic Hall and Wheatley House, located in Doncaster and operated by the Hesley Group). Looking at the experiences of 108 children and young adults, it found a culture of abuse and harm, including evidence of physical abuse and violence, neglect, emotional abuse and sexual harm.

The leadership and management in the 3 settings was inadequate and actively concealed incidents of abuse from authorities. When there were complaints and concerns about the settings from whistleblowers and parents, these were not sufficiently brought together by authorities. Therefore, the safety net that should have protected the children was ineffective.

The phase 2 report draws on the learning from what happened to those children and sets out a case for change in the quality, oversight and regulation of all residential settings for children with disabilities and complex health needs. The recommendations urge government departments to work together to transform the education, health and care offer so that children with disabilities and complex health thrive and are supported to achieve.

Panel Chair, Annie Hudson said:

There was widespread public shock and distress when we published our initial findings about the extremely disturbing neglect, abuse and harm experienced by a large number of children with disabilities and complex health needs living in residential settings run by the Hesley Group in Doncaster.

However, despair and shock are never enough and will not address the fundamental and systemic problems that contributed to the children’s unspeakably distressing experiences, over an extended period, in environments that should have kept them safe.

Today’s report draws on the learning from what happened to those children to make national recommendations that must be secured so that this very vulnerable group of children thrive, are safe and enjoy the rights that every child should be able to enjoy.

Lead Panel Member for the Review, Dr Susan Tranter, said:

The stories of the abuse that children at Hesley-Doncaster suffered are dreadful and harrowing.

This review has highlighted an acute need to do things differently, not only to prevent this repugnant story from being retold in another setting, but also to transform the education, health and care offer for children with disabilities and complex health needs.

We are recommending measures to ensure the care of children with disabilities and complex health needs is more joined up across education, health and social care.

Additionally, we are urging Government, Ofsted and the CQC to ensure there is a major overhaul of the arrangements for quality assurance and regulation of residential settings to help prevent abuse but also that when there are complaints or concerns, action is swift and purposeful.

Dame Christine Lenehan, Director of the Council for Disabled Children, said:

The appalling harm these children suffered was a result of grievous failures in both their day-to-day care, and within the system of oversight that should have guaranteed their welfare.

We’ve been here before. Earlier reports have catalogued how disabled children with a complex mix of autism and health needs can be locked away behind closed doors, often in placements far from their families, with little concern for their quality of life or futures.

These recommendations set out a roadmap to more humane treatment of these children. But without the wholehearted commitment to implement these measures fully, these failings will come back to haunt us when the next group of disabled children fall foul of services that cost the taxpayer dearly but rob vulnerable children of their basic humanity.

The panel is making nine recommendations for government departments, inspectorates and NHS England that aim at ensuring children with learning disabilities, autism and complex health needs have the support they need to thrive.

These include:

• the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should develop statutory guidance to require local authorities and integrated care boards (ICBs) to jointly commission safe, sufficient and appropriate provision for children with disabilities and complex health needs
• the government should commission an integrated strategy for the development of the children’s workforce in residential settings - this should include training on the appropriate use of physical restraints and restrictive interventions and their authorisation
• the government should ensure all children with disabilities and complex health needs have access to independently commissioned, non-instructed advocacy
• systems for the early identification of safeguarding risks in residential settings should be strengthened through an enhanced role for host local authorities and ICBs in the oversight of residential settings in their area
• the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should revise the regulatory framework for residential settings and immediately establish arrangements for joint inspection by Ofsted and CQC of residential settings for children with disabilities and complex health needs
• national leadership and investment by providers is urgently required to address the longstanding challenges in recruiting, retaining and developing a skilled workforce is residential settings

Notes to editors

The independent national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel is an independent body that was set up in July 2018 to identify, commission and oversee reviews of serious child safeguarding cases. It brings together experts from social care, policing, health, education and the third sector to provide a multi-agency view on cases which they believe raise issues that are complex, or of national importance.

On 5 March 2021, Doncaster Safeguarding Partners agreed to initiate a complex abuse investigation (Operation Lemur Alpha) into the three specialist residential settings run by the Hesley Group. Further information about the criminal investigation should be referred to South Yorkshire Police – contact details available on request.

These matters were formally reported by the Doncaster Safeguarding Partnership to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel in September 2021. The review was formally launched in January 2022.

If you receive a specific concern about a child who was previously a resident in Hesley settings, then please contact South Yorkshire Police’s designated Major Incident Public Reporting Site which is dedicated to the ongoing police investigation.