Private schools receiving millions of pounds of taxpayer cash to educate children with special needs have used excessive restraint on pupils and failed to manage their behaviour, leaving them “at risk of harm”, The i Paper can reveal.
The findings come from a series of emergency Ofsted inspections ordered by the Government on a small number of schools run by the Witherslack group, which are paid by local authorities to take pupils with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) the state doesn’t have suitable places for.
Three Ofsted reports criticising the way children are physically restrained at Witherslack schools have been published in the last three weeks. England’s Children’s Commissioner says she is “really concerned” by the findings.
The group says it has 35 schools, all rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.
The i Paper can also reveal that Witherslack faces potential legal action from parents over the way their children have been restrained at schools run by the company, including one that has not been hit with criticism from Ofsted.
Lawyers are representing eight families who say pupils were “traumatised” with “damaging” physical restraint.
The Department for Education (DfE) has said it is taking “immediate steps to address issues identified” in the Ofsted reports and that it “will not hesitate to take swift enforcement action, including permanent closure, where necessary”. Witherslack says it is committed to pupil welfare, accepts Ofsted’s findings and has taken “immediate action” to address them.
But both the Department and Ofsted are being accused of a “shocking” delay – it is more than six years since they were first warned about the damaging use of restraint on children at one of the schools, Hall Cliffe, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Ofsted has published six reports on the school since that initial warning. In the latest one inspectors find that restraint is a problem
The law allows teachers and other school staff to physically restrain children under their legal power “to use reasonable force to prevent pupils from hurting themselves or others, from damaging property or causing disorder”.
England’s Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, parents and campaigners are concerned restraint is used too frequently across both special and mainstream schools – not just those run by Witherslack.
But Ofsted has found that this has been happening at Hall Cliffe School, which is paid annual per pupil fees of £63,373 to £87,621, from taxpayer funds, and is a Witherslack school.
Inspectors say the school’s policy is to only use restraint – restrictive physical intervention – “as a last resort”. But “in practice, this is not the case,” they report. “Pupils accept witnessing or receiving restrictive physical intervention as a routine part of school life.”
Ofsted finds that school staff’s poor management of behaviour has been exacerbating behaviour problems and that Witherslack – a company which makes £34m in annual profits and is owned by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund – has “not done enough to improve the culture in the school and address the poor behaviour of pupils effectively”.
Pupils seen climbing on a bus roof during fire drill
In one example Ofsted reports that: “During a fire evacuation on the first day of the inspection, pupils were seen running around and climbing on the bonnet and roof of a minibus.”
The inspectors also find that staff at Hall Cliffe, which educates 8-17 year-olds, are being injured because of some pupils’ behaviour. “Staff accept too readily that getting hurt is part of the job,” they report, noting that they would “often downplay serious injuries”.
At Pontville School, in Ormskirk, Lancashire – also owned and run by Witherslack – Ofsted has found staff injuries from pupil behaviour happen “too often”, and an excessive use of restraint that means in some cases “pupils are held by staff in restrictive physical interventions” multiple times a day.
“Pupils told inspectors that observing these restraints as frequently as they do causes emotional distress and leaves them feeling unsafe,” the report on the private SEND school – which charges the state annual fees of £74,867 to £116,611 per pupil – says.
Inspectors add that the 5-19 school does not keep accurate records of all incidents of restraint and say that: “When pupils are held, the school is not doing enough to understand the triggers to the behaviour shown by pupils.
They say that the consequence is that “for some pupils, being physically restrained by staff has become an almost daily occurrence”.
They also warn that “a significant minority of pupils say that they do not feel safe at school” and that “bullying, prejudiced behaviour, threats of violence and physical aggression are commonplace”.
“Pupils have little confidence that staff will support them if they raise a concern,” the inspectors add. “Because of this, many pupils do not tell staff about their experiences.”
Specifically addressing the owner, Witherslack, the Ofsted inspectors write: “The proprietor has not ensured that all staff have the knowledge and experience they need to manage the behaviour of pupils well enough… This leaves pupils and staff at risk of harm.”
Vulnerable children ‘often held on the floor’
In a separate and third damning report on a Witherslack school – looking at the residential provision at Pontville, Ofsted finds that: “Children in school say children are often held on the floor and carried by school staff.
“Despite these serious concerns, the head of care fails to challenge or question these practices, falling short of the standard of care and advocacy expected from a responsible guardian. This lack of challenge undermines the children’s trust and well-being, leaving them vulnerable.”
The Abu Dhabi-owned firm, with £34m profits, benefiting from England’s special school shortage
Criticism from Ofsted is likely to be a blow to the Witherslack Group. The Abu Dhabi owned private special school and children homes operator has used the “Good” or “Outstanding” rating the watchdog has given to all its schools to justify its claim to be “the UK’s leading education provider for children and young people with special educational needs” in its latest annual report.
Witherslack is one of the biggest companies to have benefited from an increase in demand for special needs education in England that has left local authorities, unable to find enough places in their state special schools, with no choice but to pay much more for expensive private alternatives.
According to a National Audit Office report in October a SEND private school place costs an “estimated” £61,500 compared to £23,900 in state special schools. Fees at the Witherslack schools criticised by Ofsted over restraint are as high as £116,611.
The company’s most recent accounts show it made £34.8m in profit in 2022/23, up 25 per cent from the £27.8m it made the previous year.
They also reveal how quickly it has been expanding. Witherslack’s annual turnover increased from £144m in 2022 to £173m in 2023 and its school places have increased from 1,685 to 2,005 over the same period.
“The Group’s property pipeline is strong with new sites opened in Spring 2024 in Bristol, Walsall, and Tonbridge,” the accounts say. “Further site opportunities are being pursued in a number of other regions, along with a number of extensions to existing provisions.”
Witherslack currently runs 28 schools and 17 homes and, according to the company’s latest annual report, has £160m in net assets.
Mubadala Capital, part of Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund, bought a majority share of Witherslack in 2021 for a reported £590m from a private equity fund. A expert commenting on the deal in the Financial Times at the time described the returns from SEND schools as “red hot”.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel said: “I am really concerned by reports of children being physically restrained in this manner, which are sadly not isolated reports.
“Often families tell me this is prioritised over effective safeguarding, as a way of controlling behaviour or as discipline, without understanding a child’s needs… It is essential that inspections hold schools accountable for their use of restraint, ensuring it is only [used] ever a last resort.”
Emergency inspections were carried out in five other Witherslack schools in recent weeks. Ofsted reported that in each of them the company had failed to put in place a sufficient level of independence at the final stage of complaint investigations.
The watchdog said this problem was rectified after the inspections. It did not find problems with restraint at these schools.
A Witherslack Group spokesperson said: “Every one of Witherslack Group’s 35 schools is rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring that our schools deliver the highest standards of welfare, health and safety for our pupils.
“Witherslack Group acknowledges the findings of Ofsted’s recent inspections and that standards were met in all but two schools.
“At Pontville and Hall Cliffe schools we have taken immediate action to address the inspections’ findings and continue to work with the relevant local authorities to implement any further changes that ensure all of Ofsted’s standards, and our own, are met and exceeded.”
Asked why Ofsted had not reported concerns about physical restraint at Hall Cliffe before, a spokesperson for the watchdog said: “We are unable to investigate specific safeguarding concerns (e.g. a specific complaint) ourselves as we have no power to do so.
“Our inspectors will set out to question and understand any type of physical intervention or restriction on children’s lives. Where inspectors see evidence of inappropriate use of physical restraint, we will report on this.”
Six years of concerns about children’s welfare at private SEND school
Becky Gillespie’s daughter was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after Hall Cliffe staff subjected her to lengthy and frequent physical restraint – 158 times in less than two years – when she was a 13 year-old pupil at the Witherslack school.
Becky Gillespie with her daughter during the time she attended Hall Cliffe SchoolWhen she became aware of what had happened at the school in 2018, she informed Ofsted – when it inspected Hall Cliffe that year – which in turn passed the matter onto the DfE. This week, as Ofsted finally reported on problems with restraint at Hall Cliffe, Ms Gillespie criticised the Department’s “painfully slow and totally inadequate” response to what has happened in Witherslack schools.
“Reading these reports is terribly sad but not shocking,” she told The i Paper. “What is shocking is that this hasn’t been exposed before. We know children have been traumatised and come to physical harm from being physically restrained.”
Last month Witherslack said it had apologised about what had happened to Ms Gillespie’s daughter and had reviewed physical restraint at Hall Cliffe in 2018 and brought in changes under new leadership including new training “rooted in trauma-informed practice and positive behaviour support”.
But evidence seen by The i Paper shows that concerns about the use of physical restraint at Hall Cliffe School continued after 2018, although there were five Ofsted inspections before it viewed it as a problem.
An incident report from October 2019 reveals how a 12-year-old boy was held in a “ground shield” at Hall Cliffe for 12 minutes (Government guidance recommends a maximum of ten minutes for any single incident of physical restraint for adult mental health patients. There is no equivalent time limit in official guidance for schools – something campaigners want to see changed). Parents of the same pupil called for an official local authority investigation into the use of restraint on their son at Hall Cliffe which concluded in January 2020 that the “intervention” was necessary but that events leading up to it “could have been managed better”. Ofsted conducted an emergency one day inspection of Hall Cliffe in October 2020 commissioned after the DfE “received a concern that suggested that “physical restraint is not used appropriately” at the school. The inspector said Covid meant a “limited amount of time was spent walking around the school buildings”. But none of the pupils or staff they spoke to expressed “any concern” over restraint. It was also not flagged as an issue at a subsequent routine Ofsted inspection in June 2021. Another emergency Ofsted inspection of Hall Cliffe was commissioned by the DfE January 2023, “as a result of complaints relating to safeguarding and pupils’ welfare”. Inspectors did report on restraint but said that incidents were “declining”. In June 2023 the DfE rejected Witherslack’s “action plan” for improvement after the January inspection found some aspects of safeguarding pupils’ welfare were “not effective”. September 2023 Hall Cliffe moved onto its 10th headteacher since first opening in 2015 – Vicky Prosser – who is still in post today. In October 2023 Ofsted inspected again and described Hall Cliffe as “good” in a report that does not mention restraint or physical intervention at all. In December 2024 Ofsted conducted a two day emergency inspection of Hall Cliffe commissioned by the DfE as a result of “concerns raised about the school and the Witherslack Group in general”. It finds that physical restraint is “routine” and that the school leaves pupils potentially “at risk of harm”.Hall Cliffe parents are among a group of eight families considering legal action against Witherslack over the use of restraint in several of the company’s SEND schools.
Samantha Towle, their lawyer, said they “simply don’t feel as though their complaints were being taken seriously or sufficiently investigated”.
“Legal action is always the last resort but, in the absence of definite steps and action being taken by the schools the parents had little option but to seek legal advice in an attempt to protect their children, which is always the primary focus,” she said.
“The use of restraints in schools can be damaging to already vulnerable individuals, with the full extent of the impact often not becoming apparent until many years later.
“These practises can cause serious and long-lasting harm to a child’s emotional and psychological well-being. In the cases we have seen children have been left traumatised following the use of restraint and seclusion, so it is only right that legal action is the correct route following a potentially unlawful act.”
A Witherslack Group spokesperson said it took “the complaints of parents extremely seriously and works to ensure that any complaints are thoroughly investigated and quickly addressed”. “Our complaints policy and procedures fully meet Ofsted’s standards and ensure that any complaints are easily raised and fairly resolved,” they added.
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