![\"Children's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Sad-scared-children.jpg\")
Children’s home where kids go missing and youngsters vape and smoke unchallenged branded ‘inadequate’ (Image: Daily Record)<\/p>\nA children’s home has been deemed ‘inadequate’ by a government watchdog after shocking findingsChildren’s home where kids go missing and youngsters vape and smoke unchallenged branded ‘inadequate’ (Image: Daily Record)<\/p>\n
A children\u2019s home in Oldham has been slammed as unsafe by a government watchdog after it was found kids have gone missing and can vape and smoke \u2018unchallenged\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ofsted deemed the private residential facility, run by Cambian Childcare Ltd, \u2018inadequate\u2019 in all areas after an inspection in September. In a report published this month, inspectors Hayley Smith and Nicola Ruthford stated there were \u2018serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected\u2019 at the home.<\/p>\n
These included kids going missing from \u2018for prolonged periods of time\u2019, with \u2018inconsistent and at times insufficient search efforts by staff\u2019 and a failure to report missing persons to police in a timely manner, Smith and Ruthford found.<\/p>\n
The home, responsible for four kids at the time of the inspection, also found that \u2018staff responses to children\u2019s use of substances are poor\u2019 with \u2018children smoking and vaping in the home unchallenged\u2019.<\/p>\n
Staff also failed to carry out spotchecks despite kids rooms smelling like cannabis, and in one case delayed searching a room when there had been a concern for them carrying a weapon.<\/p>\n
The home is supposed to cater for up to seven kids with social and emotional difficulties. But the report also laid bare a lack of support for struggling kids and a lack of training to deal with youngsters who become aggressive.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_250725loldhamgvs5.jpg\")
The home is supposed to cater for up to seven kids with social and emotional difficulties.(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff do not follow children\u2019s plans to manage behaviour,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do not have the skills to de-escalate incidents of violent and aggressive behaviour involving children. This has led to the police being called to manage children\u2019s behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
One child, whose English ability was limited, was not given the opportunity to receive information in their own language or freely share their views. This means they were at \u2018greater risk\u2019 of not having their needs met by the home.<\/p>\n
In general, the report concluded that the \u2018home conditions do not provide a warm and nurturing environment\u2019. Parts of the house were left in a state of disrepair and none of the children\u2019s rooms were personalised.<\/p>\n
Some of the issues seemed to stem from the home\u2019s leadership, according to the report. The residential setting was without a manager at the time of the inspection due to \u2018serious allegations about the leadership and management team in the home\u2019.<\/p>\n
The allegations were investigated but there were \u2018delays\u2019 in taking action and informing Ofsted, according to the watchdog.<\/p>\n
The provision, which first opened in 2003, has been rated \u2018good\u2019 for the last four years until now. All the children at the home engage with education and are supported in maintaining links with people who are important to them. But, the report concludes: \u201cThere are shortfalls in safeguarding practices which have led to an increase in risks for some children in the home.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Cambian Childcare Ltd said: \u201c\u201cThis home was rated \u2018good\u2019 by Ofsted for the last four years. We have taken the action required to address the concerns highlighted in this report, under a new management team we expect to return the home to a standard we expect. Our company\u2019s quality ratings exceed the national average reported by Ofsted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A children’s home has been deemed ‘inadequate’ by a government watchdog after shocking findingsChildren’s home where kids go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,105,2465,30154,1286,14984,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-542537","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-health","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-ofsted","14":"tag-oldham","15":"tag-oldham-council","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115475823267303914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542537","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=542537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}