AN EMPLOYEE from a Worcester children’s care home - forced to temporarily close following an Ofsted inspection - has spoken out.

The whistle blower, who wants to remain unnamed, has criticised senior managers at Green Hill Lodge, in Merrimans Hill Road, which is operated by Worcestershire Children’s First.

Following two inspections, the care home has been forced to close until the end of August.

The employee said: “Senior management have been well aware of all concerns addressed within the recent Ofsted inspections and failed to act accordingly in the first place to ensure homes and young people were supported.

“The biggest shame being that if support had been put in place when needed then this could have been preventable and the abrupt disruption to those young people’s lives could have been avoided.

The employee says he witnessed a high level of staff sickness and staff vacancies, meaning the home was operating on “low and dangerous” staffing levels with full occupancy of young people.

The whistle blower said currently The Riddings at Bricklehampton, is the only Worcestershire Children First home currently open.

The Worcester News previously reported that Green Hill Lodge was slammed by Ofsted after staff were unable to give police basic information about a missing child. It was also found that a boy had smashed his window to escape the home.

The employee said: “The young person in question, with regards to issues stated in the report about Greenhill Lodge and going missing from the home, and another young person escaping, was in fact the same young person and had previously resided in The Riddings.

“The young person on the previous day of moving to Greenhill Lodge was told that The Riddings would be his long term placement and he was safe and secure, only to be woken up the following day and told he was moving within hours.

“This obviously led to a very stressful move. There had been a lack of information sharing from one home to the other, leading to the staff being unaware of the issues of the new young person moving in.

“It is very difficult to obtain the information needed in a two hour window. The reason for the young person having to move was that another young person had been wrongly placed at Worcestershire Children First supported living home at Hillview, in Malvern, and had to be moved immediately to gain the bed at The Riddings.

“Hillview is an unregulated home to support children into adulthood, and again appropriate placements of young people residing there have not been taken into consideration.”

Tina Russell, Director for Social Care and Safeguarding at Worcestershire Children First, said: “We are working with staff and Ofsted to address the concerns raised.

“We will not comment further in relation to the detail of the concerns as it would be inappropriate to do so given the confidential nature of some of that work. We will not comment on individual cases.”