\n The report followed a monitoring visit to Aontacht Family Services, which provides housing placements to families under assessment.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Parents\u00a0are required to stay and are\u00a0assessed on whether they have the ‘necessary skills’\u00a0to look after their children.\n<\/p>\n
\n The inspection\u00a0focused on the safeguarding of a 14-year-old mother at the centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u00a0stated the placement should not have been accepted, as the child was ‘looked-after’, meaning she was under the care system.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Grace O’Reilly, managing director at Aontacht, claimed this was not the case when the girl was admitted.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said the home told Ofsted when registering that it would accept parents as young as 14.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, Ofsted said the home isn’t registered to care for looked-after children and\u00a0labelled the placement as a ‘significant incident’.\n<\/p>\n
\n When asked about the report, Ofsted said it does not comment on individual settings.\n<\/p>\n
\n The report said safeguarding incidents at Aontacht are rare, and when they occur,\u00a0staff respond ‘effectively and appropriately’, informing relevant professionals\u00a0in a ‘timely’ manner.\n<\/p>\n
\n It said staff work closely with parents and help them understand risks and how to manage them, and that they\u00a0have access to courses to build their parenting skills.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ofsted also praised the centre’s ‘comprehensive’ risk assessments.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms O’Reilly said: “We strongly dispute the recent report published by Ofsted, which contains factual inaccuracies and presents an unduly critical view that lacks appropriate context.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have consistently operated within the framework of relevant regulations, and as such, we were deeply disappointed by Ofsted\u2019s approach as our regulator.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Accordingly, we submitted a formal complaint regarding their handling of this matter.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “While we are disheartened by the experience, we hope that the learnings from this case contribute to the development of improved policies and procedures.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is vital that no other Ofsted-regulated setting is subject to the poor service we have received, and more importantly, that services for young parents who are also looked-after children are reviewed, ensuring they are afforded a fair opportunity to remain with their babies.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Despite this matter, Aontacht continues to hold an overall Ofsted rating of \u2018good\u2019, with no concerns raised regarding the quality of service we provide.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We remain proud of our work, the positive reputation we have built, and our ongoing commitment to supporting families with integrity and professionalism.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She explained that\u00a0it is rare for a foster carer to be licensed to care for both babies and\u00a0teenagers, meaning young parents and their children are often separated.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ofsted published a blog on September 3, after the report, which clarified looked-after children\u00a0shouldn’t be placed in family centres.\n<\/p>\n
\n The blog also said: “The current regulations and national minimum standards that underpin Ofsted\u2019s regulatory and inspection work are out of date and need urgent revision.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This limits our ability to regulate services well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The report followed a monitoring visit to Aontacht Family Services, which provides housing placements to families under assessment.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-425379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115206425756608453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}