Ofsted found restraint used outside the legal criteria at the Rochester secure school and served two compliance notices. The deadline is 20 September.

Ofsted has served two compliance notices on Oasis Restore, the secure school on Sir Evelyn Road in Rochester, after inspectors found that children there had been physically restrained when the legal criteria for restraint were not met.

The regulator published the report on 10 September 2026. The visit it describes took place on 29 and 30 July (Ofsted monitoring visit report, URN 2801375).

It was not a routine visit. The report says plainly that it “was carried out to address specific concerns received by Ofsted”.

What inspectors found

Ofsted describes two separate incidents.

In the first, a child was restrained “over a prolonged period following a medical concern”. The report states: “The legal criteria for the use of restraint were not met when the physical restraint was initiated or at any point as it continued.”

Inspectors accept that staff believed they were acting in the child’s best interests. Their criticism is that nobody stopped to check. Staff and managers “failed to challenge decision-making or review practice throughout the incident to ensure that the steps taken were proportionate and necessary”. During the same incident, the report says, managers and staff “did not ensure that the child had access to the right health support at the right time”.

In the second, a child “was subjected to a physical restraint that was not necessary or proportionate to the situation”, and staff carried on restraining the child after the legal criteria no longer applied. The written record of it “did not provide an accurate description of the physical restraint techniques used”.

The finding that runs through both is about oversight rather than the moment itself:

  • managers reviewed both incidents but “failed to identify that staff had acted contrary to regulations”
  • the restraint record was not properly scrutinised until an external agency reviewed it
  • the record left out the effectiveness and consequences of the restraint, and any injuries to the child
  • that led to “inaccurate reporting to external agencies, including Ofsted and the child’s local authority social worker”

Ofsted also records that staff and managers “have reflected on the recent incidents and are committed to making improvements”, and that all the children “actively and regularly participate in education and a range of enriching activities” with “established routines and positive relationships with staff”.

What a compliance notice actually is

This is the part that matters most, and it is stronger than an ordinary inspection requirement.

Ofsted served the notices under section 22A of the Care Standards Act 2000. One covers Regulation 20, which limits restraint to preventing injury, serious damage to property or absconding, and requires it to be necessary and proportionate. The other covers Regulation 35, the duty to make an accurate record of every use of restraint within 24 hours.

Ofsted’s own enforcement policy sets out what follows:

  • the notice sets out actions the registered person must take within a set timeframe
  • “If the registered person does not complete the action within the specified timeframe, this is a ground for cancellation, and an offence for which the registered person could be prosecuted”
  • “There is no mechanism to appeal against a compliance notice issued under s22A”
  • Ofsted carries out a monitoring visit or inspection within five working days of the deadline

(Social care enforcement policy, Ofsted)

The deadline on both notices is Sunday 20 September 2026. On Ofsted’s published policy, inspectors should be back at the Rochester site within five working days of that date.

Three requirements and one recommendation were raised at the visit in total. The remaining requirements were not reviewed in full and will be looked at again at the next full inspection.

Older requirements that are still open

The back of the report lists requirements carried over from previous inspections, each with the date by which it should already have been met. Several have been outstanding for more than a year:

  • Regulation 12, protecting children from harm, including “prompt liaison with the local authority designated officer”: due 1 August 2025, restated
  • Regulation 13, leadership and management, including that “all restrictive measures and practice concerns are scrutinised through a curious lens”: due 1 August 2025, restated
  • Regulation 35, restraint records, including that debriefs with children and staff are carried out and recorded promptly: due 1 August 2025, restated
  • Regulation 6, quality and purpose of care, including continued improvement to the home environment: due 1 October 2025, restated
  • Regulation 33, practice supervision and annual appraisal for all employees: due 1 October 2025, restated
  • Regulation 8, education, including helping children above compulsory school age into further education, training or employment: due 1 October 2025, restated
  • Regulation 10, health and wellbeing: due 1 November 2026

The four recommendations cover careers guidance, comprehensive health assessments when a child arrives, record-keeping that distinguishes fact from opinion, and the factors staff should weigh before restraining a child, including age, size, disability and medication.

How the site got here

Oasis Restore opened in Rochester in autumn 2024 as the UK’s first secure school, on the site of a former secure training centre. The government described it at the time as “first-of-its-kind” and said it would hold children on remand or sentenced to custody (Ministry of Justice, October 2024).

It is dually registered as a secure children’s home and a secure 16 to 19 academy, run by the charity Oasis Secure School Trust and approved by the Secretary of State to restrict children’s liberty. Every place is commissioned by the Youth Custody Service. NHS England, not the council, is responsible for commissioning health services there.

The July 2026 visit was the seventh Ofsted inspection or monitoring visit at the site since it opened, and the sequence is the context for the latest one:

  • 11 February and 17 June 2025: two full inspections, both rated requires improvement to be good, with a monitoring visit between them on 30 April
  • 30 July 2025: a monitoring visit with a specialist architect found several security doors “badly damaged”, a revised fire safety strategy, and managers reporting that the failings had driven a rise in single separation, where a child is locked alone in an area. The education block was very hot and the outside areas were poorly maintained (report, 30 July 2025)
  • September 2025: the provider closed the home to carry out remedial work. Ofsted attached a three-month condition requiring leaders to give three months’ notice before admitting children again
  • 28 May 2026: a second architect visit found the 2025 security concerns addressed and the environment appropriate, with no children living there (report)
  • 4 June 2026: a readiness visit. The condition was lifted, the registration varied to allow up to 24 children, and leaders set out a staged plan to admit a small number of children at first (report)

Six children were living at the home when inspectors arrived in July, against 24 places. The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since 6 January 2026.

Oasis Restore has not published a response. Its own news page carries nothing later than 2023, and there is no statement on its website about the July visit or the compliance notices, checked on 14 September.

What it means for you

For most people in Medway this is a building at the end of a road rather than a service they use. It matters anyway, for three reasons.

It is a Medway institution in all but commissioning. The children come from courts across England, but the staff, the safeguarding referrals and the scrutiny are local. One of the outstanding requirements is specifically about “prompt liaison with the local authority designated officer”, which is a Medway Council post.

The next step is dated. The compliance deadline is 20 September 2026, and Ofsted’s policy commits it to a return visit within five working days. Whatever happens next will be published on the school’s Ofsted provider page, where every report for the site since 2025 sits in one list.

Reports for secure children’s homes are public, in full. Anyone can read the ones above without a login. If you want to follow this, the provider page is the place to check, not a news search.

We have covered the other side of youth justice in Medway before: the council’s own service was rated requires improvement by the probation inspectorate in August. For everyday Medway information, see our planning applications and council tax bands pages.

Nobody is named in the Ofsted report and nobody is named here. No criminal proceedings arise from a compliance notice unless the deadline is missed, and the school has had no opportunity to appeal, because none exists for this type of notice.

Sources