Children’s care provider to close all homes after 'hotel assault'
Dimensions Care ran five homes in areas including Birmingham, Coventry and Telford
A children’s care provider is shutting all of its homes in the West Midlands after inspectors found a sharp drop in standards.
Dimensions Care has applied to Ofsted to cancel its registration and says it will permanently close its five homes.
It follows the watchdog rating the service as “inadequate”, citing safeguarding failings, poor leadership and unsafe recruitment checks.
Inspectors found children were exposed to serious harm, including sexual exploitation, self-harm risks, and unsafe behaviour management.
"extremely poor"
The report described how two children had "regular missing-from-home episodes". During one incident, two children left the home late a night to access nightclubs in Birmingham and Coventry.
The report said: "on their return to the home the following morning, one child disclosed that they had been taken to a hotel by adult males and were subject to a sexual assault and possible ingestion of drugs unknowingly".
The report also detailed how children’s experiences and progress had been “significantly affected” by how they were cared for, with immediate risks to their safety and well-being.
The report described an “extremely poor” environment with broken fixtures, dirty bedrooms, and restricted access to parts of the home.
Ofsted said management oversight was inadequate, staff lacked proper training, and serious incidents were not always reported to the authorities.
The company says children from two homes have already been moved to other providers, and it is working with councils to find places for four more young people from three other homes.
"These decisions have been extremely difficult to make"
In a statement, Dimensions Care said "it is with much regret that Dimensions Care has decided to permanently close its five care homes and has applied to Ofsted to voluntarily cancel its registration as a provider of social care.
"We are working with local authorities to find alternative places of care for four children from across three of our homes.
"Children from our other two homes have already been placed with alternative registered providers of care.
"These decisions have been extremely difficult to make, and they are outcomes that we’ve worked hard to avoid.
"Disappointingly and sadly for everyone involved, there was a decline in our previous ‘Good’, Ofsted-graded standards, which should not have happened.
"Having completed an internal investigation and after continuing to collaborate with Ofsted, we determined that the permanent closure of our homes and our voluntary deregistration is the most appropriate way forward".
The firm thanked staff for their commitment and said it is supporting them as the homes prepare to close.