Catalyst Care Limited is the first unregistered children's homes provider to be successfully prosecuted in England, after operating three homes in Kent without Ofsted registration.
Private equity firms control significant portions of UK public services, receiving billions in public funds. Concerns are rising over financial engineering, debt loading, and the risks borne by vulnerable individuals when these services fail, as seen in children's homes and care providers.
Ofsted has issued a compliance notice to Bright Horizons, one of the UK's largest nursery chains, citing significant weaknesses in safeguarding leadership and practice. The regulator's scrutiny followed a serious safeguarding incident last September. While most settings meet requirements, the provider must improve management-level oversight.
The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers has criticised Ofsted at his union's annual conference in Belfast, saying school leaders are being pressurised "to the point of destruction". Paul Whiteman placed "the education establishment on notice" over risks to headteachers' mental health, referencing the 2023 suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry after an inspection. The NAHT had considered industrial action after a legal challenge to the new scorecard inspection framework failed, but paused this following talks with Ofsted and the Department for Education.
Exclusive: Vulnerable children being placed in caravans and Airbnbs when Ofsted-inspected homes cannot be found‘It’s soul-destroying’: the struggle to house vulnerable childrenMinisters must get to grips with the “national scandal” of England’s shadow child social care system, the children’s commissioner has warned, as a report reveals the number of children in unregulated settings has increased by more than 370% in five years.Some of the most vulnerable children in England are being temporarily placed in unregulated caravans, Airbnbs and holiday camps, which risk the “accumulation of increasing levels of harm for children who have already faced enough distress for several lifetimes”, according to the report. Continue reading...
