Children’s home shut down after boy hadn’t bathed, changed clothes or eaten hot meal in four months
Staff had not entered his room despite evidence of flies and a ‘pungent’ smell emanating from it
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Your support makes all the difference.A children’s home in Bolton has been shut down after inspectors found that one boy had not bathed or changed his clothes for four months while living there.
The youngster wasn’t given a single hot meal during his time at the facility run by Achieve Care Homes.
Staff didn’t enter his bedroom between September 2021 and this January despite evidence of flies and a “pungent” smell emanating from it, Ofsted inspectors discovered.
So appalled were officials by what they witnessed during their visit on 5 and 6 January that they immediately suspended the home’s registration and withdrew children from it.
“Managers and staff do not understand their roles and responsibilities in providing basic nurturing care or appropriate support to children that they are responsible for,” they said in the report.
Among other observations were that staff were not ensuring children took prescribed medication and that youngsters were “not appropriately safeguarded by the adults who are caring for them”.
Staff were generally underqualified and inexperienced, and spent “very little time” with those in their charge, the inspectors found.
“One child spends most of their time in their bedroom, including eating all their meals in there,” the report stated. “The daily records show that staff carry out a ‘welfare check’ approximately every hour during the day, with very little interaction recorded. This is not a caring or nurturing environment for the children.”
The home – which is not specifically identified in the report but which only opened in August – has now been ordered to make an extensive list of improvements before it is allowed to reopen.
Achieve Care Homes did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment but, according to records kept by the Independent Children’s Homes Association, the company runs three care homes across Bolton for youngsters aged 8 to 18 with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties.
The managing director is named as a Robert McGuinness.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We continue to work with Ofsted – as the regulator of children’s homes – to assess the situation at the Achieve Care Home in Bolton and ensure the children are being kept safe.
“Any institution seeking to register an independent school must meet the independent school standards and the secretary of state must be satisfied that they are likely to do so, considering any available evidence to make a decision. There is no live application from the company in question to set up an independent school.”
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