By Jamie Waller, Local Democracy Reporter
A care home run by Nottinghamshire County Council has been rated ‘inadequate’ by an industry watchdog.
Oakhurst residential home in Mansfield was visited by Ofsted inspectors on May 21 and 22, and received the lowest possible grade after previously being rated ‘good’.
The council says a manager was brought in from another care home within a week to oversee rapid improvements.
The facility usually looks after up to four children with emotional and behavioural difficulties or moderate learning difficulties.
Ofsted, which monitors education and children’s services, has issued two compliance notices, which are used to ensure facilities raise standards to meet their legal requirements.
A restriction on how many children can be looked after there has also been put in place by the watchdog until September.
A full report hasn’t been published yet as Ofsted delays releasing its assessments on local authorities-managed facilities in the run-up to elections.
The grade will be discussed at a meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council’s Corporate Parenting Panel next week (July 2).
A county council report on the issue says: “The [new] manager is skilled, highly experienced, and well regarded within the service.
“The manager has already started to implement new systems in the home and provided clear structure, systems training and guidance for the staff team.
“The new management team has reviewed and updated all risk assessments, safety plans, behaviour management plan and baseline assessments. These assessments are now in line with children’s current and ongoing identified needs.”
It adds: “The ethos of the home is to ensure each child that lives at Oakhurst feels valued, listened to and has a positive experience of living in residential care.”
The county council runs three similar mainstream homes, with the others being the three-bed Lyndene site in Edwinstowe and West View in Pleasley.
Caudwell House in Southwell is a 12-bed residential home for disabled children, and the Big House in Edwinstowe provides support for up to 27 children with disabilities.
Both of these are currently rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesperson said: ‘’We are committed to high standards of care for all of Nottinghamshire’s looked after children and we had already recognised some of the issues raised by Ofsted, and are currently taking urgent action to address all of the concerns and improvements identified.
“Some of the changes are already in place including a new, highly experienced registered manager, a review of and updated risk assessments, new safety plans and behaviour management plans.
“We are confident that the right plans are in place to improve the experiences of children so that they receive the quality of care they need and that we expect to be in place. We are committed to making positive changes within the home and striving to improve the Ofsted rating at the next inspection’’.