Chiltern Centre to reorient staff for adult care switch

A HENLEY charity which offers respite care to the families of disabled young adults could close for a week when it loses its right to look after children.

The Chiltern Centre is to be stripped of its Ofsted registration on June 19 because it has mostly cared for users aged 16 to 25 for many years when it should “wholly or mainly” have catered to under-16s.

Now it plans to register with the Care Quality Commission in order to look after the older age group exclusively but says a brief closure may be needed to ensure staff understand the watchdog’s rules.

Paul Barrett, chairman of trustees, said the families of the eight children who were using the centre had been informed and were upset to learn they could no longer visit.

He said there was nothing similar in the Henley area so they would have to either travel much further or arrange care at home.

Mr Barrett said: “I don’t know exactly what arrangements people have made as this will vary according to individual need but I can tell you that a number of parents were extremely distressed at having to remove their child from this facility. Several have suggested that they will write to Ofsted to communicate their distress at the action which it has taken.”

The charity says it had no control over its users’ ages and fewer children were being referred due to funding cuts by local authorities. It says taking only under-16s would not have been viable financially.

Ofsted overlooked this situation for many years but cracked down after giving the charity an “inadequate” rating following an inspection at the start of this year.

This was due to a failure to report a safeguarding concern. No one was harmed but inspectors said correct procedure should have been followed.

The centre agrees it broke the terms of its registration but has asked Ofsted to extend its registration by a month in case its CQC registration is delayed.

Mr Barrett said: “We’re expecting to be CQC- registered by late July and hope there will be an overlap with no period where we have no registration at all, meaning we couldn’t operate. However, we will probably shut down for a week in order to reorient the staff to the technicalities of providing a more adult service.”

Henley Mayor Ken Arlett, who attended the charity’s annual meeting where the news was revealed, said: “The Ofsted inspector should have shown some common sense. I can’t believe this is the only charity in this position and you’d think they would have come up with a way around it.

“I feel sorry for all the people who work so hard to raise money for the centre as this is a real sledgehammer blow. The real losers are the young people who are affected and you wonder whether Ofsted realises that.”

The centre has provided respite care for familes of children and young adults with severe physical and learning difficulties since 2003.

Its fund-raisers raised £296,000 last year.

Mr Barrett said: “It’s a superb achievement. They really are a great team and we’re very fortunate to have them. I would also like to pay tribute to the local community, who have always shown great support for us, as well as our patrons and grant-givers.”