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The fallout from this week's news that a new children's care facility is soon to close has deepened, with the charity behind it flatly rebutting several key claims by the Government.
The Silkworth Charity Group have said that contrary to Government claims, they did consult senior officials when putting together their plans - in fact they actually received a personal donation from the former Government Chief Executive - but were left with no option but to close, when in their view, that support was never fully delivered.
Hope House was opened in March in the former Brig-Y-Don children’s home to provide a four-week therapeutic residential programme for young people experiencing emotional distress or struggling with addiction, mental health issues and eating disorders.
The charity spent five years and £250,000 on the project, after identifying a need through its work with islanders.
However, in July, Express revealed that after welcoming several children referred by social workers in the weeks following its opening, the referrals stopped following what the charity believes was a sudden and unexplained 'directive' from Children's Services - leading both Silkworth, and the Children's Commissioner, to raise the alarm.
Pictured: Hope House uses the premises of the former Brig-Y-don children's home.
When news of the facility's closure broke this week, the Government responded with a statement from a spokesperson saying:
"As reiterated on many occasions, we can confirm that the Government has never prevented children or young people being referred to Hope House...The current service offered at Hope House is a 28-day residential treatment programme focused on resilience and preventative wellbeing initiatives such as structure, exercise, coping skills. While it is registered as a Children's Home it is not a therapeutic Children's Home, so does not have the approvals, facilities or staffing to meet the needs of children with the most complex needs.
"There has been very little demand for the services offered by Hope House. The Government has asked, on a number of occasions, if Hope House would consider adding to and/or adapting its offer to children but this was declined, despite the Government not having many children that would meet their criteria.
“A small number of children have been referred to Hope House through social care but they were deemed to not meet eligibility, either their mental health need was too high, or they did not wish to attend or the four week programme was simply not appropriate for them.
"We have added Hope House to the children and young people directory and if a professional, parent or carer spoke to the Hub about available services they would be signposted to Hope House if it was felt appropriate.
“The Government was not consulted on the specification of services that Hope House was developing before they opened. Had the Government been consulted beforehand, we would have advised on the type of services that are currently required for children with the most complex needs.”
Pictured: Silkworth invested £250,000 in the refurbishment.
However, Silkworth have now flatly rebutted parts of that statement.
On the point about the Government not preventing children or young people being referred, the charity responded:
"Incorrect. A 'looked after' young person, and another young person, were prevented from being referred to Hope House in March this year. It is also important to highlight it is not just the refusal of said young people being allowed access to Hope House, it is also the inference that Hope House was not suitable, from such a directive. This directive in itself put undue pressure on the said families, particularly when future statutory support would have been withdrawn had one of those young people been admitted."
The Charity argues that it is "...a treatment facility with a specific programme for adolescents focusing on Tier 2/3 mental health issues" and was never intended to look after children with highly complex needs. It says there are hundreds of young people in the Government system who might benefit, but that the Government is acting as a "gatekeeper" and is not fully presenting Hope House as an option to them.
The charity has also flatly rejected the Government's claim it wasn't consulted when Hope House's specification was being drawn up:
"This statement is incorrect, the Government, and in particular senior officials including the Director General within CYPES, and the Chief Executive at the time, were party to the discussions. In fact the previous Chief Executive was a supporter of this initiative, and has made a significant donation to us in support of it."
Silkworth Chair and Founder, Frank Laine MBE, commented: “We were not doing it for cash, we were doing it because we saw the need.
“We spent five years building the team, putting this programme together and finding the appropriate property, we found one, we refurbished it to a high standard.
“It’s a shame because this building could not be more perfect. It’s a disgrace, Jersey deserves better, our children, your youngsters deserve better.
“We love the island, we value what we’ve got but this is an opportunity that has slipped past them. Those people are misguided, and they do not understand. It’s a crying shame that the people who are on Robin Ward and Orchard House have missed the opportunity of this facility.”
Express spoke to Silkworth CEO Jason Wyse about his concerns that Government 'gatekeeping' is stopping the island's most vulnerable children access the best quality therapeutic care...
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