January 2012
A clean sweep of the 'Outstanding' grade across all of the Royal National Institute of Blind People's (RNIB) residential services for children and young people has been awarded by Ofsted.
Outstanding grades were achieved for RNIB Sunshine House Children's Home, RNIB Pears Centre Children's Home and the 16-19 yrs provision at The Stan Bell Centre at RNIB College Loughborough.
Graham Brittain, Director of Education and Social Care for RNIB, said: "These fantastic achievements demonstrate our continued commitment to delivering exemplary services for children and young people with sight loss and complex needs."
Sally Harvey, Group Director Independent Living at RNIB, added: "We are delighted with the news that three of our residential services have been awarded an 'outstanding' grade and send our congratulations to all the staff and managers who work tirelessly towards attaining and maintaining these high standards."
Ofsted's report for Sunshine House concluded that 'young people are thriving in this very focused and well managed service', while the report for the RNIB College in Loughborough stated that the college had 'outstanding systems for promoting the health and welfare of all learners'. RNIB Pears Centre was described as 'an absolutely fabulous provision that cares for the young people exceptionally well'.
RNIB work to ensure that blind and partially sighted children and adults including those with additional disabilities maximise their potential. We provide support, advice and information for parents, carers and professionals as well as delivering specialist residential care, education and work related training within our schools and college.
[End of media release]
Notes to Editors
These grades for RNIB's registered children and young person's provision were all achieved from full two day Ofsted regulatory compliance inspections at each location, undertaken between 14-22 November 2011.
We provide a range of education, residential and family services for children and young people in our establishments. To find out more or to download our full Ofsted inspection reports visit rnib.org.uk/education.
For press enquiries, please contact Rachel Cafferty in RNIB's Public Relations Team on 020 7391 2043, email rachel.cafferty@rnib.org.uk
To catch our press releases as they arrive you can follow RNIB Media on Twitter @RNIB_Media
About RNIB
Everyday around 100 people in the UK start to lose their sight. There are around 2 million people in the UK with sight problems. RNIB is the leading charity working in the UK offering practical support, advice and information for anyone with sight difficulties. If you, or someone you know, has a sight problem RNIB can help. Call the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or visit rnib.org.uk