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Ofsted is considering permanently closing a children’s care home owned by reality TV star Ampika Pickston and funded by her billionaire West Ham owner fiancé David Sullivan amid complaints the company is “misleading” the public into believing it has been allowed to re-open and is “providing a good service”.
With Ofsted having extended its temporary ‘restriction of care’ order against AP Care Homes Ltd – founded and run by Ms Pickston through a £1.2 million loan from Mr Sullivan – which was imposed due to a catalogue of child safeguarding concerns, the watchdog has confirmed to Byline Times that its guidelines require it to consider cancelling the firm’s registration altogether.
The development comes after public complaints were made to both Ofsted and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about how AP Care Homes Ltd appears to be promoting itself online.
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Confirming the ASA was “reviewing” a complaint made by a member of the public that AP Care Homes Ltd’s Instagram posts could breach advertising rules (although not launching a full “investigation”), a spokesman said: “The complainant argues that the [Instagram] posts are saying that the company is open for new children and providing a good service, which is misleading.”
Ofsted – which inspects schools, colleges, child-minders, nurseries and children’s homes in England – is understood to have received a similar complaint, but a spokesman would not confirm that.
Leading children’s campaigner Chris Wild, who has advised the Government on the children’s care sector having spent time in care as a child himself, said: “It would never be okay to mislead the public when it comes to children’s care.”
In the 13 weeks since 30 January, when AP Care Homes Ltd was barred from taking in child residents for the second time in three months, the company has published 52 promotional Instagram posts – 12 featuring stock pictures of children not in its care – which works out at more than one post every two days.
The posts give no indication that the home is not currently open, and some even appear to suggest children are living at the facility. One, on March 11, featured a group of children in a field running towards the camera smiling. The caption read: “We aim to put a smile on our Children and staffs (sic) faces everyday!”
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Several of the company’s Instagram posts relate to ‘Equine Facilitated Learning’, which involves children working with horses. However, Byline Times understands that was never provided to any of the children in its care, despite having previously – and erroneously – referred to itself as a ‘partner’ to a local riding school.
The law around advertising states that all marketing and advertising must be “an accurate description of the product or service”, “truthful” and “honest”. The ASA spokesman added: “If a company or business claimed to offer a service when that wasn’t the case, that could be found to be misleading.
“We have a number of sanctions available when ads break the rules. In the first instance we ban the ad outright. We can also work with media platforms to have content removed, or refer an advertiser to a statutory backstop for further action, such as fines.”
It is not known who, including Pickston, has control of AP Care Homes Ltd’s Instagram account or whether the Real Housewives of Cheshire star and former OnlyFans model made any of the posts in question. Neither Pickston or AP Care Homes Ltd responded to requests for comment.
Despite a solicitor for AP Care Homes telling the BBC on 14 March that the company was “engaged in ongoing legal proceedings” against Ofsted regarding its initial suspension in November, meaning it was “unable to comment further on those matters pending the conclusion of the present legal action”, the company has published several Instagram posts which are critical of what it has called the “bullying” body.
One, on 4 April, featured a photo of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who took her own life while waiting for a critical Ofsted report. The caption read: “This beautiful lady lost her life at the hands of OFSTED inspectors… [Ofsted] regulate themselves and accept no form of valid criticism [,] her sister wrote. Very sad 😔 time to work together and bullying behaviour to end now.”
Mr Wild suggested such behaviour was not “professional” for a company set up to care for vulnerable children, saying: “Even if [care home providers] don’t agree with Ofsted [and its decisions], it’s always good practice to act in a professional manner – especially when working with children. You would expect them to lead by example.
“There are policies in place that allow providers to challenge decision-makers, but suggesting a government body is acting in a bullying manner on social media isn’t something I would recommend, especially if going through litigation against them.”
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A flood of positive reviews from people saying they were staff at AP Care Homes Ltd were posted on a jobs website in the week it was first shut by Ofsted in mid-November following a damning inspection critical of its “weak” management team and “poor” training.
Until that point, the company had only ever received one-star ratings from people saying they were employees on the Indeed employment site. They included one on 28 October titled “avoid”, and another on 14 November which described the home as like an “army camp”.
In the week before and after the Ofsted inspection, which suspended care at the facility with immediate effect on 17 November, the Indeed page for AP Care Homes Ltd was awarded 11 five- and four-star reviews.
They included eight on the same day, four days after the closure, from people describing themselves as ‘current employees’, expressing similar sentiments about the quality of “training” and “management”, and happiness of the child residents.
The reviews, which included one said to be from a child resident, had the effect of lifting AP Care Homes Ltd’s Indeed rating as a place to work from one star to four, pushing negative reviews down the page. Byline Times understands they were posted despite AP Care Homes Ltd requiring that employees sign non-disclosure agreements.
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On 21 November, the same day as the eight positive reviews were posted, someone said to be from AP Care Homes published strongly-worded rebuttals to the three negative reviews, suggesting they were “bogus” or that the authors must have “failed probation” and were driven by “bitterness and spite”.
No reviews have been posted since, despite the facility been permitted by Ofsted to reopen for three weeks in January, before being forced to shut again.
It is not known whether anyone employed by AP Care Homes Ltd, or who had done so previously, were responsible for posting the ‘employee’ reviews, as they are anonymous. AP Care Homes did not respond to requests for comment on these points.
In mid-January Byline Times reported that one of its reporters had received a letter from Liverpool-based law firm Brabners, on behalf of Pickston and AP Care Homes Ltd, making legal threats for investigating the initial suspension.
Byline Times understands that Brabners no longer represent AP Care Homes Ltd. The legal firm recently said it had not been in contact with the company for a number of months.
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It is not known which law firm, if any, is currently representing AP Care Homes or whether the company is continuing its legal challenge against Ofsted.
While a spokesman for Ofsted said it did not comment on individual cases, the body’s registration guidelines state: “We should always consider whether to cancel the [home] if we are continuing to extend the period of restriction.”
They added: “Where necessary, we may cancel a registration at any time. There is no specific time frame on taking that decision.”
There is no suggestion that Sullivan – whose estimated £1.2 billion fortune was made in the adult industry and who owns a 38.8% majority stake in West Ham – has involvement in AP Care Homes Ltd, beyond the provision of financing.