Disastrous Crawley children's home report 'another failure by the Conservatives'

Ofsted visited the West Sussex County Council run Teasel Close, which looks after around five children, in early August.

It was rated inadequate in all three major categories: overall experiences and progresses of children and young people; how well children and young people are helped and protected; and the effectiveness of leaders and managers.

Ofsted said: “Leaders and managers have failed to take effective action in a timely manner to safeguard children. Children’s emotional wellbeing has suffered as a result of harmful peer relationships and the disruptive behaviour.”

West Sussex Lib Dems said they read the Ofsted report ‘with a grim sense of déjà vu’.

A Lib Dem statement said: “Once again Ofsted is saying that Conservative-controlled West Sussex County Council has let down our most vulnerable children and once again members of the relevant committees have not been made aware of problems until they were public. The story on children’s homes was being trumpeted as a success to councillors but for one of our children’s homes to fall from Outstanding to Inadequate in just over a year shows how fragile the improvements in children’s services still are.”

“The Conservative administration needs to accept that it took its eye off the ball, and own yet another failure on their watch. The Ofsted findings should not be written off solely as an isolated incident or as symptomatic of national issues. This council needs to accept the failing is theirs, make the necessary changes, and make these changes fast. Our children cannot be failed again.”

Criticising a lack of information provided to elected councillors on the problems at Teasel Close until the Ofsted report was public, Jay Mercer, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for children’s services, said: “We all would like the most vulnerable children to be safe and happy in our children’s homes. We want to use our knowledge and experience to help ensure that.”

After the report was published, Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children and young people at WSCC, said: “We fully accept the findings from the report and responsibility for the failings in the home, which our teams have been working hard to address.”