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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 on