Untitled Document

This interview was with an independent social services management consultant. Called in as a troubleshooter' by interim trustees of Small School at Red House, Nov 1997 to sort out management problems at both schools. She had a senior position on the board of trustees.

Severe problems

She found severe problems of every kind, including a culture of abuse', flouting regulations, lack of child protection, bullying, poor staffing. She believed pupils were put at psychological risk and the Tvind organisation as a whole was dangerous' and evil'.

Background

In summer 1997 interim trustees were appointed to put the schools on a proper footing'. She was appointed in November. I came in knowing nothing about the organisation other than that the trustees had some concerns, but they couldn't put their finger on them.'

The trustees were by then reviewing staffing and child protection to check compliance with recommendations in the Warner Report (on child protection). New staff were being appointed. Danish Tvind staff had been asked for their co-operation and agreed.

Double standards

She found inconsistency between Tvind rhetoric and what actually happened.' Tvind staff paid lip service to the law, child care regulations and the requests of the English trustees - but actually paid no attention to them. They said one thing and did another. They went their own sweet way'.

This applied across the board. For example, there were record books, complaint forms and incident report forms - as required under child protection laws. But they were hardly ever used - if they were filled in they tended to disappear. After the school closed caches of documents of one sort and another were found all over the school in the oddest places'.

Staffing levels

For example Tvind staff believed that there was no need for lots of staff - just one or two group leaders.' That meant one head of house for each group of children backed up by unqualified volunteers from Tvind in Europe - usually students paid £100 a month. The trustees told them this was unacceptable and said the volunteer system would have to be scrapped. Tvind ignored this. Volunteers were still being recruited in Europe as late as December.

On 9 or 10 December the management committee held a meeting with Tvind staff and told them there were major problems in the management structure, style and culture of both schools.

Bullying culture'

There was a culture of abuse at both schools. At Winestead it was fairly open because of a male macho culture' of teachers S, J and R. Winestead was a horrible place to be - absolutely dire'. At Red House where the principal was a woman it was more hidden. There was bullying at both schools.

I have thought a lot about what I witnessed in both schools and I think what they did was to break the children's spirits. They tried to break children's attachments with other people and their families and their inner selves. If you didn't accept this you were either bullied or psychologically forced into submission.'

Both Norfolk and Humberside social services were concerned about the bullying culture'. Humberside had refused to send children to the school for four years and its director, Robert Lake, tried to get the school closed down.

There were suggestions of sexual abuse - not between adults/children but among the teenagers. When this was raised with Tvind, the teachers tended to shrug and say this is what children have to do', as if it was a learning experience.

Complaints were made but they tended to get lost'. On one occasion a child claimed she had been sexually abused by another. The complaint just disappeared'. This could be because children were intimidated against pursuing complaints. On another occasion a parent complained about interference with her daughter's possessions and that money had been taken. Instead of investigating the school ignored the complaint. When the mother visited, the pupil's possessions had all been cleared from her room.

When things went wrong children could be made to feel it was their fault'

One member of staff witnessed and heard what happens when someone steps out of line. They sit you in a chair and one person is in front of you and one behind you. They bully you.break you down. This happened with the kids as well as the adults.

As a tactic, what happened to the adults in Tvind was happening also to the kids. In Red House, the system was that the children were encouraged to use the technique on other children.'

A paranoid cult

Tvind appeared to be a schizophrenic' organisation - the staff paid lip service to child protection policies, but at the same time blithely went on doing things their own way. Whenever the trustees attempted to bring in child protection policies there was resistance. The feeling among Tvind staff semed to be why bother with legislation?' They were a law unto themselves.

My feeling is that they just knew what the world needsit was very socialist. Their view was, you can't trust any institutions. They semed to believe the receivers were in the pay of the CIA.'

After the schools closed, a lot of propaganda material was found in the schools relating to the IRA and other resistance movements.

They believe they had the right to swipe as much money out of any government as they could. At £1,000 a week for each child, England was fair game. They had the right to do whatever they wanted with the money. Fanatical. That's what they are. Paranoid. Suspicious. And very dangerous.'

She began to fear for her personal safety after the schools closed, because people tended to blame her. On the day of the closure L, a colleague, was physically threatened by Jochen.

Coopers and Lybrand investigations

In 1996 Coopers and Lybrand looked for evidence of large scale fraud but were unable to find it.

However they did find that Tvind staff were earning hugely inflated salaries. Steen and Lena were paid £50-£55,000 and group leaders earned £40,000, very large salaries for the job at the time. Nine tenths of this money was going back to Denmark. The receivers ordered the teachers to open their own bank accounts so that the salaries could pass through them - it would prevent so much money going back to Denmark.

They also found a fantastically complicated' web of interrelated companies and system for moving money around. The furniture was owned by a Tvind company. So were the ships and the computer system. She saw a flow chart drawn up by the receivers in an attempt to find out where the money had gone. It appeared too complicated to bring any clear charges of fraud.

Here you have two schools where all the money goes to associates of Tvind and all of it is routinely denied. Argyll Smith initially said it had no connection with Tvind. But the very day that papers were received on the matter, Argyll Smith appointed advisors. It was obvious. It was a farcical situation.

SSI and Ofsted reports

Over 5-6 years SSI reports had identified weaknesses and many people wanted to close the schools, but there did not seem to be a way.

Education officials were concerned. In December 1997 Ofsted raided Red House School at 11pm, searching all the rooms. Winestead was also inspected'.

Social service inspectorts in Humberside and Norfolk all knew there was a problem but couldn't see a way to close the schools. They passed the buck on to the trustees. At the same time they hobbled the trustees by giving them inadequate information. The SS had a big file on the schools but this was not passed on to the trustees. She cannot understand why. It smacks of collusion.

[In the end it was the official receivers who considered the financial and care evidence and decided the schools could not guarantee the safety of the children]

Grave risk to children'

In the end there was no alternative except to close the schools. I truly believe these organisations were of grave risk to children. Everyone was agreed the decision to close was correct.' The closure had to be done suddenly and without much notice, or the kids could have run amok. I believe otherwise something drastic could have happened - there could have been deaths and there could have been arson. There could have been kids on the rampage.'

As it was there were hysterics all round among staff and kids. Some of the Danes were wildly abusive, saying How can you do this, the children will die.'

Why never stopped ?

Unable to say why social service inspections, Ofsted and the local social services director were able to stop this abuse. Perhaps it was not obvious. Any abusive regime is covert. A child from a tower block in Gateshead who's only ever known violence is not going to blow the whistle. They are going to expect a punitive culture. If there is a payoff, a curious thing happens - they become dependent on an abusive carer. Some kids actually like it. Some kids actually enjoyed being there.'

There may be truth in the theory that Tvind has influence with people in high places.

Does the Tvind regime work?

She does not believe the statistics handed out by Red House school, suggesting that 75 per cent of children do not reoffend. There have never been proper longitudonal studies. She believes the figures may have been massaged.

Children used for unpaid labour' and fundraising

Children were used for cheap labour. There were trips abroad, eg to Kenya and Angola. In reality the children were taken to community development projects in Africa, where they were used as unpaid labour to build huts and so on. The trustees stopped these foreign jaunts. The Tvind staff ignored them. On Monday they were told a trip to Kenya was off and on Tuesday Steen told the staff the trip was booked. There were always one or two trips a year.

School to reopen?

I'm terrified they will reopen it. They can't - surely. However they have plans lodged to reopen Winestead as a young offenders institution for 16-18 year olds.so they would escape the child care legislation. They say they have no connection with the previous peplethat's bullshit. It's a blithe We'll do what we feel like, whatever you say.'

Red House School & Argyll Smith

Coopers and Lybrand, receiver managers, were appointed (the second time) on about 23 Dec to manage the charity's affairs in place of the interim trustees and swiftly decided to close the schools. The receivers had appointed an investigator to study the complex web of associated companies. She believes this investigator established a connection between The Small School at Red House and Argyll Smith

Corroboration is supplied by the following episode. On 7 Jan 1998 both the schools were closed. Immediately negotiations began between the receivers, acting for the charity, and Argyll Smith over the question of unpaid rent. This went on for some time. At this point Argyll Smith denied any connection with the charity - i.e. Tvind. However, on the day that Coopers & Lybrand handed over the property (both schools) to Argyll Smith, Argyll Smith appointed and named their agents to manage the property. These were Lena Eriksson and Karen Barsoe.

Lena Eriksson was formerly the the head teacher at Small School at Red House, Buxton, Norwich. Karen Barsoe was formerly the administrator of both Red House School and Winestead Hall School. Both were employees of Tvind. Furthermore Karen Barsoe continues to be an employee of Tvind, since she is currently director of the College for International Co-operation and Development in the buildings of the old Winestead Hall School at Winestead Hall. The link between the Small School at Red House, Tvind and Argyll Smith is clearly established. QED.