THE temporary closure of Oasis Restore, Britain’s first “secure school”, lower than a yr after it opened is a “tragedy”, the founding father of Oasis, the Revd Steve Chalke, said this week. He was speaking after a series of Ofsted reports highlighted concerns concerning the educational facility.
Opened in the summertime of 2024, after a £40-million refurbishment of the location of the previous Medway Secure Training Centre, Oasis Restore is a partnership between Oasis, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education, and the NHS.
As a “secure school”, it was designed to accommodate young people aged 12 to 19 who had been convicted of great criminal offences, with places commissioned by the Youth Custody Service. The constructing, comprising houses with bedrooms somewhat than cells, and no bars, can accommodate 49 children, ranging in age from 12 to 18.
Its ethos was described by Mr Chalke because the “abandoning of a penal approach” and was designed as “to start with a house, after which a faculty, after which a health centre. The whole experience children could have here can be each educational and therapeutic” (Features, 24 May 2024).
On Monday, Mr Chalke said that Restore was “progressing well” after its opening last yr. But, in February, an internal secure door had been broken after a “dysregulated” young person kicked and broke it. “That shouldn’t occur,” he said. “The doors aren’t alleged to try this.” Other doors had also been kicked and broken.
“This is a highly secure unit working with essentially the most complex young people within the country,” he said. “All have committed violent crime. . . What you wish with a view to run a secure environment is well-trained staff, trained in a therapeutic approach and non-confrontational restraint, and a secure environment, and you’re depending on each.”
The lack of such an environment after the destruction of the doors had produced a “deterioration” in children’s behaviour, “because they were scared”, he said. “And it led to a few of our staff feeling unsafe as well.”
As set out in an Ofsted inspection published on 30 July, Oasis “reluctantly” decided to shut the ability temporarily in September. The report recorded that several security doors had been “badly damaged, which compromises the security of kids and staff”. Managers reported to Ofsted that the damage and security failings had led to an increase in locking children into an area alone. Inspectors found “serious safety and security issues in two areas of the house”.
The Ministry of Justice was accountable for the constructing, including expediting repairs and ordering needed items, Ofsted said, “nevertheless it has did not be certain that the alternative items needed can be found and installed inside an inexpensive time-frame”.
The July report followed a series of inspections that praised facets of the unit while raising concerns. An Ofsted report in February concluded that Restore required “improvement to be good”. Children told inspectors that staff lacked “consistent boundaries and expectations”, while staff felt “disempowered due to a scarcity of clear incentives for youngsters”.
Oasis RestoreExterior of Oasis Restore
Senior staff had faced “significant challenges” for the reason that home was registered, including “difficulties with recruiting and retaining managers and staff who’ve suitable skills, experience and the values and attitude that senior leaders are in search of”.
Another visit in April reported the necessity to exchange a “high number” of internal doors, but said that mitigating steps taken by staff had “significantly reduced the chance to staff and youngsters”. It recorded a rise in children’s making weapons out of on a regular basis items, and a few reported feeling unsafe as the explanation. There had been no incidents during which children had harmed others with weapons, and the report praised the “nurturing care” of staff.
The next visit in June concluded that the effectiveness of leaders and managers was “inadequate”. It also raised concerns about single separation, including a scarcity of “comprehensive exploration of the emotional impact on children”, but said that staff on the time approached children “with care and nurture”.
“Interventions that help children to know the explanation why they need secure care are of an excellent quality,” it said. “Direct work focuses on constructing self-esteem and provides a secure space where children feel comfortable to open up. Through this implies, children are constructing trusting relationships with the staff, which is supporting their progress.”
After the destruction of the doors, the Ministry of Justice had said that Restore could expect all latest doors to be fitted by mid-May, Mr Chalke clarified this week. But, in July, Oasis learned that the brand new doors had not even been ordered. Knowing that it will be at the very least three more months before the doors arrived had caused a “dip in morale” and the lack of staff. The Oasis board had decided to “shut temporarily”.
The Ofsted reports have attracted media attention. An investigation by Channel 4 News in August quoted a representative from the Prison Officers’ Association who said: “Assaults are rife, assaults on staff should not getting reported to the police including sexual assaults on staff, managers are attempting to cover things up and the managers are encouraging staff to not report things to the authorities. . .
“There’ve been a number of incidents of disorder including prisoners there refusing to go behind their doors on lock up, prisoners refusing to go to education which has led on some occasions to managers instructing staff to permit them to remain out of their rooms and to play football outside for a period of eights hours because they refuse to go to education. It’s completely chaotic, it’s uncontrolled, it’s disordered and there are too many incidents of violence to the individuals who work there.”
One staff member said: “It is difficult to live out the ethos. The kids include numerous trauma and issues that affect their behaviour, which could be extreme at times. Staff are only ensuring that they don’t hurt one another or themselves and trying to interact them in activity. Kids need clear boundaries and so they have to be ready to interact to come back here.”
On Monday, Mr Chalke said that Restore had been subject to unsubstantiated allegations. No staff member worked alone and there have been security cameras in all places, he said. The children placed on the unit had “huge developmental trauma. . . That is why they’re in a secure environment in the primary place.” It was not a part of the prison service, he said, but a secure school inspected by Ofsted.
“The whole point is the kids that come to us aren’t engaged in community, let alone education. And that’s the reason they’re coming to us. Just the going through a court process if you find yourself a baby and being sent for custodial sentence is extremely traumatising.
“When they first come to us they’re totally discombobulated: they’re all over. They don’t come to us ready to interact. Our task is to work them them therapeutically to calm them and interact with them in order that they reach point where they will engage. Therapeutic care is all about constructing relationship and trust.”
The “overwhelming majority” of staff were “good at doing that”, he said.
The timetable for brand new doors was “a matter for the Ministry of Justice. But I’ve asked and asked and asked and as yet, there is no such thing as a exact timeframe. . . We are talking about months not weeks — which is a tragedy. This is the toughest thing that has ever happened to me in my working life. It’s the hardest things, because I feel that we were commissioned to work therapeutically, and we have now failed those children, who needed to go elsewhere.”
On Tuesday, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We are taking the problems on the Secure School extremely seriously, and we have now been working with Oasis Restore to get them addressed. We are working at pace to repair doors, and we have now now moved all children and young people to other secure settings.”
