Council holding new review into failings at Mansfield SEN school

Harlow Academy was briefly closed last year following a damning report by education watchdog Ofsted, following an inspection in January 2022, ruled the school “inadequate” and said “pupils were not safe”.

Inspectors visited the now-closed school – then run by the now-defunct Evolve Trust – after parents of pupils, all with special educational needs, raised a raft of issues.

The Ofsted report was damning with the school found to be “inadequate” on quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, early years provision and sixth-form provision.

It led to the school closing for a week and teams from two other educational trusts being brought in to oversee the running of the school when it reopened.

It was later praised for the improvements it had made when it was inspected again by Ofsted last summer.

However, a new investigation on the Schools Week website has now revealed further damning revelations from the original Ofsted inspection notes in January 2022, reporting how inspectors said it was “disturbing and difficult to see the level of neglect” at the school.

The investigation said inspectors noted some pupils had to stay in classrooms at lunchtimes because the school did not have enough staff to take them outside and that children sometimes had to wait up to 30 minutes to be changed after soiling themselves, again due to a lack of staff.

It also said the council had dismissed safeguarding concerns raised by parents months earlier.

In response, the council has now launched a second independent investigation into what happened at the school.

Laurence Jones, council children and family services department commissioning and resources service director, said: “We are very aware of how the situation at the former Harlow Academy has impacted on the children who were pupils there and their parents.

“The local authority commissioned an independent review of its practice to better understand if there was more that could have been done to identify the systemic problems at the school earlier and to respond more effectively.

“As a result of that review, we have made changes to the way our different teams and services share information about concerns in organisations so that we have better intelligence on which to make decisions.

“The local authority review revealed the complexity of responsibilities and accountabilities that span academy trusts, Ofsted, the Regional Schools Commissioners – now Department for Education regional directors – and health partners.

“We therefore asked the Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Partnership to undertake a multi-agency review, again with an independent author, and that has commenced with all relevant partners agreeing to be involved.

“The scope of that review will include any local improvements that can be made and will also look at the way national policy enables or presents an obstacle to timely action in responding to concerns.

"We expect that review to report back in early summer and it will be shared with the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.”

The school closed in the summer. It has been replaced by Fountaindale School, run by Rotherham-based Nexus Academy Trust.