Revealed: £3m being spent on 180 replacement doors at Oasis Restore

Meghan Shaw reports.

Transcript

00:00It's called a secure school, but actually the first thing it is, is a home, a secure home.

00:06These were the words of optimism just over a year ago from the founder of the country's first so-called secure school,

00:15first opened last May in Rochester.

00:18Now, a year on, the situation looks a little bleaker.

00:22Oasis Restore, a young person's rehabilitation school centred around education over punishment,

00:30lasted around a year before it had to close due to safety concerns raised by Ofsted.

00:36Now, the government has footed an additional £3 million bill to replace around 180 internal doors, destroyed by inmates.

00:46During a public accounts committee on the 23rd of October, further revelations about the strength of the doors came to light.

00:54The doors in particular, they weren't doors to places where people slept,

00:59but they were doors to corridors, dining areas, kitchens, visit rooms, education, etc.

01:07So those internal doors, and they had been used before in a secure setting.

01:15They were tested, but actually when they were used in this setting,

01:19they proved not to be as effective as we would like them to be.

01:23The Taxpayers' Alliance raised concerns over such a large sum of government money,

01:29being funnelled into an increasingly disastrous project.

01:32Taxpayers were told this experiment would transform youth justice,

01:35but instead it's become another costly failure,

01:39where violent offenders are running riot and staff are under attack.

01:44Safety concerns cast a large shadow over a project supposed to offer a softer solution to rehabilitation.

01:51The Ministry of Justice has said that alongside restoring doors,

01:55offering additional support and safeguarding is a priority.

01:58With the school set to reopen in March 2026,

02:02perhaps there are bigger lessons than vocational skills ahead.

02:06Megan Shaw for KMTV in Rochester.