Tom Wall

Illegal children’s homes: company that let child sleep on floor… Ofsted suspended GMT after visiting a dilapidated and unsafe home. Yet its operators are still providing care for vulnerable children

It is illegal to run a children’s home that isn’t registered with Ofsted

Yet local councils are increasingly reliant on such placements – and use your money to fund them

Illegal children’s homes: company that let child sleep on floor… Ofsted suspended GMT after visiting a dilapidated and unsafe home. Yet its operators are still providing care for vulnerable children

A company found to be providing inadequate care by a High Court judge & Ofsted has collected millions for running illegal children's homes.

Two children are currently living in the firm's illegal homes.

New from myself & @garethtbij.bsky.social

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

Illegal children’s homes: company that let child sleep on floor… Ofsted suspended GMT after visiting a dilapidated and unsafe home. Yet its operators are still providing care for vulnerable children

Revealed: Company paid millions of pounds to run illegal children’s homes was suspended by Ofsted after a vulnerable child was found to be sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a run-down bungalow

New for @tbij.bsky.social by me and @tomwall.bsky.social

Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley Lord Houchen told Newsnight in 2024 that 2 private developers had ‘£50m of their money sitting in a bank account’ when I quoted an independent report pointing out the pair had put no direct cash of their own into regenerating the huge old Redcar steelworks site 👇

You should really listen to what 1000s of doctors are saying - pay restoration over the long term. That's very reasonable. All workers deserve it. But maybe you prefer Streetings misrepresentations.

Maybe ask why so many resident doctors have lost faith in the government to fix the NHS? This is on Streeting.

The 50 richest families in the UK hold more wealth than 50% of the population. If the government taxed that wealth then the NHS wouldn't be on its knees.

That's because much of the media are amplifying Streeting's framing of all the issue. All workers deserve pay restoration - and it's perfectly affordable in one the richest countries on earth.

Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer are doing their best to demonise resident doctors but 1000s have voted for strike action because they are worse off than they were in 2008 - and the service is on its knees because of underfunding.

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors

Such a devastating and important investigation by Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne. Glad to have helped in a small way. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Changing the Conversation on Asylum: A Messaging Guide Our new messaging guide looks at the methodology and messages that can help us carve out a new approach that will be successful in persuading the public that seeking safety is a fundamental human righ...

Seems like a good time (again) to share the guide I developed with @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social, which tells you how to talk about refugees and asylum in a way that actually convinces the undecided - based on testing 🧵 www.freedomfromtorture.org/changing-the...

About 50 antiasylum protesters led by far right UKIP leader Nick Tenconi were outnumbered by over 400 anti fascists in Bristol today. Lots of refugees waved at the crowd protecting the Mercure Hotel, with one girl making a silver heart and holding up against the window.

Cornwall council offered suppliers £6m to staff illegal children’s… Regulators intervene after UK local authority accused of normalising unlawful placements

perating a children’s home that is not registered with Ofsted is a criminal offence

Yet, Cornwall Council offered suppliers £6 million to provide “staffing for unregistered places” across the county – and advertised the contract on a government website

The crisis in children's care is now so deep that one council has been caught openly promoting a multimillion pound contracts to staff illegal children's homes. My latest for the @tbij.bsky.social 👇
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Vets say they are under pressure to bring in more money per pet Some tell the BBC they are encouraged to compete over the number of procedures they carry out on pets.

This is why the CMA had to act - corporates have been putting pressure on vets to charge pet owners more. We spoke to whistle blowers who revealed the monitoring & strategies used to maximise corporate profits for this BBC investigation. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Shabana Mahmood calls Nigel Farage ‘worse than racist’ over ‘dog-whistle politics’ Home secretary also tells Labour conference fringe event of the abuse her family have been subjected to recently

This speech epitomises the tragedy of Labour centrists: they call out the dog whistle racism of mass deportations of recent mostly non white migrants but the response is a diet version of the same policy: make it much harder for the same migrants to stay.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Plan to build 12 new towns in England to be unveiled at Labour conference Housing secretary is set to announce initiative modelled on Clement Attlee’s postwar ‘housing boom’

Compare the post war efforts to house people with the current government.
🏘️ between 1945 & 1951 over 80% of 1.2 million built were council owned social housing.
🏘️ Only 20% of the 12 new towns to be announced at Lab conference will be social housing
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Everyone should read the case of Fernando Fontoura in The Guardian by @tomwall.bsky.social today. I hope Labour don’t think they’re doing what they’re doing to him in my name. Shocking.

This is the ugly reality of Labour's crackdown on "illegal working": a man who grew up here grabbed on the street, locked up for a month & threatened with deportation. My report for the Guardian 👇
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Every day this Summer has been a record of how Nigel Farage already runs the country.

An endless cycle of hate & racism. One day boat arrivals, the next releasing ethnicity data for crimes, so we can know whether to riot if they’re brown or shrug if they’re white.

Back to the 70s🤦‍♀️ #r4today

Family of Southport stabbing victim criticise plan to reveal ethnicity of suspects Exclusive: Michael Weston King, grandfather of Bebe King, warns government against ‘kowtowing to the likes of Farage’

The family of Bebe King, one of the girls killed in the Southport attack, have urged ministers to reconsider disclosing ethnicity of suspects.

They say family were failed by “despicable” actions of far right, who “tried to make political gain from our tragedy”

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

1. The impacts of predatory capital - impossible rents, failing public services, rising costs of living - are being blamed across the billionaire press on immigrants and Black and Brown people.
It's so crude, so obvious, so familiar .... but if you tell the lie often enough, people believe it. 🧵

‘They lump us all together’: van-dwellers and homeowners clash over life near Bristol Downs People living in vans on the park are the subject of a campaign from those living nearby – and the Green-led council is being forced to act

The conflict playing out on the Bristol Downs is a microcosm of the UK's multiple crises: not enough affordable housing, low wages & threadbare support services.... while the rich get richer. My report for the Guardian 👇
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Expert’s suspension raises questions over ‘huge’ number of family… Graham Flatman may have wrongfully given evidence in seven cases uncovered by TBIJ – and that could be the tip of the iceberg

Expert's suspension raises questions over 'huge' number of family court cases

Great reporting by @hansummers.bsky.social & @tomwall.bsky.social for @tbij.bsky.social's #familycourtfiles series

UK council placed 10-year-old in illegal children’s home costing £29k… Isle of Wight has paid over half a million pounds for four months of ‘wholly inadequate’ care

“You could send him to Disney[land] Paris for a month and save some money"

Judge's verdict on UK council that paid £500,000 to house 10-year-old boy in an illegal children's home for four months

Story by @tomwall.bsky.social for @tbij.bsky.social

UK council placed 10-year-old in illegal children’s home costing £29k… Isle of Wight has paid over half a million pounds for four months of ‘wholly inadequate’ care

More details in my @tbij.bsky.social write up of the case and the issues it raises
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Council spent £500,000 to house vulnerable child in unregistered home A judge has ruled that the standard of care was‘wholly inadequate’ after hearing of staff’s frequent use of restraint and the boy’s social isolation

This is a scandal hiding in plain sight - 100s of vulnerable kids sent to illegal children's homes every year at vast public expense. This latest case reveals a system in crisis. My report for @tbij.bsky.social & @thetimes.com with ‪
@andrewellson1.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Let down by the care system: state-funded patients Residents in state-funded private facilities more likely to receive below standard treatment, according to Oxford University study

Brand new research reported by @tomwall.bsky.social this weekend:

Our new article, funded by @nuffieldfoundation.org describes the extent of inequalities in care homes - with better care going to those that can pay for it.

For-profit homes delivering poorest care for state-funded residents:

Thanks Guy. It was a wonderful experience even though I had to race back to file on deadline!

Blissful isolation: wild camping on Dartmoor to celebrate a protected right Backpack camping is defended after a supreme court ruling, securing access to a unique experience of nature in England

"Access campaigners hope the Dartmoor ruling will push Labour to open up more land to the public... Some wonder if the judgment could prompt other national parks to allow responsible backpacking camping"

Cracking piece by @tomwall.bsky.social:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...