She said the stairwell cage would be covered by a blanket when the child was shouting and that her son was sometimes kept inside one of these cages for up to six hours, without water or access to a toilet.
“Even an animal wouldn’t have been left in a cage for that long”, she says.
Council records state that Ofsted were informed about what the mother found but there was no inspection. Ofsted now says it cannot find any record of a complaint.
Catch22 says the spaces were used by previous leadership and a 2018 council report concluded that there was no proof pupils were locked inside.
Regulation of the use and design of calming rooms is now urgently needed – according to Sir Iain Duncan-Smith.
Following our investigation in April, the Children’s Commissioner also called for changes to guidance on the use of seclusion in special schools – which has not happened. The Department for Education says it is “looking” at ways to “strengthen” it.
The Metropolitan Police says it continues to conduct “wider enquiries” about Whitefield, not relating to abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment.
The Flourish Trust, which runs Whitefield, says it has learned from the failings in this case.
Ofsted says responsibility for investigating the harm caused to children following its discovery of the rooms lay with the Department for Education, as regulator, and Waltham Forest.
Although it failed to investigate after Ofsted’s inspection, Waltham Forest says it will now commission a local case review, which it says will be “wholly independent”. It says it had not asked to review CCTV at any point because it did not know it existed.
Waltham Forest also says it has offered counselling to families. But the families told the their children need significant and wide-ranging help to address the abuse they faced – and they will be living with its consequences for the rest of their lives.
