An education provider in Kentish Town for children with special needs has been has been down graded to inadequate across all areas by Ofsted.

Elfrida Rathbone Camden - Leighton Education Project, based in Dowdney Close, has been rated inadequate for everything from the quality of its education to its leadership and management.

The college provides education and training to young people aged 16 to 25 with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including autism spectrum disorder, and medical needs, such as epilepsy.

At its previous inspection in April 2016, the college, which is based in the same building as the Elfrida Rathbone nursery, was rated 'good'.

Two joint acting directors have had responsibility for the leadership of the college since February 2022.

At the time of the inspection, there were 17 learners with education and health care (EHC) plans who have high needs.

Inspectors said in their report: "Learners do not learn in a safe enough environment."

Among the list of failures was that leaders were unable to complete the necessary safe recruitment pre-employment checks on volunteers, and hadn't ensured staff were suitably trained to administer emergency medication to learners with medical conditions like epilepsy.

In addition, those with speech and language issues were said to have failed to make progress, as they did not have access to support from the full range of specialist therapy staff.

Although staff have a supportive and nurturing approach, they do not sufficiently take account of learners’ previous achievements, skills and knowledge at the start of the year resulting in "poor progress", the report said.

Ofsted's report said arrangements for safeguarding are "not effective".

"Governors and leaders fail to provide a safe environment for learners," it states.

"They have not identified and taken any action to reduce the risk of possible harm that could occur to learners when members of the public access the shared building where learners attend college."

It continues: "Staff have not adequately given learners the knowledge and skills to know how to protect themselves from danger.

"Leaders do not ensure that learners are taught how to protect themselves from risks."

Ofsted made eight recommendations to remedy the failures, including that governors and leaders must ensure learners are taught and supported by staff who are suitably qualified and experienced to work with young people with SEND in the further education sector.

Elfrida Rathbone Camden Leighton College has been approached for comment.