Whitefield School: Staff members filmed ‘abusing’ children at special school

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Staff members at a special school in London were filmed abusing children in so-called ‘calming rooms’, but have still not been barred from working with children, a BBC investigation has found.

The abhorrent abuse was discovered when 44 memory sticks containing CCTV footage of classrooms were found in a sealed box, when new leadership took over Whitefield School in Walthamstow, north-east London in 2021.

Whitefield School

The BBC launched the investigation after a whistleblower raised the alarm, frustrated by the lack of sanctions in place for the abusers. Some of the footage showed staff hitting, kicking and leaving pupils in their urine for hours on end, at one of the UK’s largest special schools.

According to the BBC investigation, a joint Metropolitan Police and local authority investigation was launched into “organised abuse” by staff between 2014 and 2017.

The BBC has also obtained confidential documents written by an HR consultant who was employed to review the footage and staff conduct, which revealed the extent of the abuse, affecting 39 pupils – some of whom were unable to speak.

The BBC obtained leaked school and council reports, information requests, and interviews with current and former employees, which revealed the following:

Pupils were left alone in the rooms for up to four hours, with footage showing them naked, sitting in urine and eating crumbs off the floor

Children were “slammed”, kicked and hit with force “without obvious justification”, while rhino pads – often used in rugby training – were deployed to push pupils inside

The HR consultant identified more than 20 CCTV clips of excessive force and records of police notes described possible assaults – but despite this the Crown Prosecution Service did not recommend prosecutions

A whistleblower who worked at the school describes what they saw on CCTV as “torture” – and says the rooms were worse than cells

One dad, Ricardo, whose son David has diagnoses of ADHD, autism and OCD spoke to the BBC, highlighting how he became concerned when his son began coming home distressed, after being placed in the secluded “calming rooms”.

Ricardo, who is a police officer said he asked the school about the use of the rooms and was wrongly told that staff always remained with pupils. He said the rooms are ‘worse than a prison cell’ and one was previously used as a stationary cupboard.

The BBC has seen one observation report of a three-hour placement, where David is clearly upset, recorded crying on 38 separate occasions over the period, asking to leave throughout. He is also observed saying he is “confused” and “does not understand” why he is there.

Significant self-injury is recorded – the boy slaps and punches his head, hits his stomach and throws himself into the wall. After two hours, David is twice observed urinating but is not allowed to leave.

“My son was in a panicked state and crying and self-harming, begging them for water and food and they just ignored him – it’s torture,” Ricardo added.

Education consultant Elizabeth Swan told the BBC the report alone warranted a voluntary DBS referral against staff monitoring David.

However, Flourish Learning Trust, which runs the school, told the BBC that a new leadership team had taken over after the calming rooms had been shut, shared the footage with the police and learned from the failings.

It said some staff had resigned since its investigations were completed but three who returned have received extensive training. It said it complied with employment law and the local authority, Waltham Forest, was content with its conduct.

Separately, one staff member was sacked by the Trust. But the Trust added it was not legally obligated to make DBS referrals for the six staff members who were not sacked despite its investigation findings proving they abused pupils.

Fiona Almazedi, our Head of Employment Law, commented on the importance of whistleblowers in institutions raising concerns to protect vulnerable people in their care. Fiona said:

“Sadly, this type of abuse cover-up is becoming alarmingly common and really highlights the importance of whistleblowing which is often the only way that these horrendous situations come to be discovered.

“It also exposes disturbing and significant problems with the recruitment of the staff in these organisations and suggests that the current balances and checks that should operate to ensure that only safe and suitably trained staff are appointed are not being followed or are not sufficient.

“Whistleblowers often face tremendous hurdles to bring matters to light and endure retaliatory treatment that can even end careers. However, these brave and resilient individuals continue to do the right thing and certainly, as an employment lawyer who specialises in these types of claims, I have nothing but admiration for them.

“I feel that as a society we need to see a significant change in the way that this issue is dealt with and make it much easier for individuals to come forward and that is going to take a shift in mindset in many organisations, there is a tendency often for defensive behaviour as a reaction to whistleblowing rather than honest reflection and remedial action but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.”

Whitefield School: Staff members filmed ‘abusing’ children at special school

Staff members at a special school in London were filmed abusing children in so-called ‘calming rooms’, but have still not been barred from working with children, a BBC investigation has found.

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