Last week I published a confidential Kent County Council (KCC) letter to the parents of pupils attending Bradstow special needs school in Broadstairs. The letter expressed grave concerns about how the safety and well-being of the 70 extremely vulnerable pupils, many of whom live at the school, is being put at serious risk by management failures, lack of training, and staff shortages.
Unbeknown to me, whilst I was writing that article, education and social care regulator Ofsted was hard at work conducting yet another inspection into the residential care services at this failing and dangerous school.
An email sent to school staff on 15 June by Headmistress Penny Doswell, said that the “ Ofsted inspections we had in Hawthorn and the 38 week homes gave us overall ratings of Inadequate” Just to be clear “inadequate” is the worst possible grade a school or residential establishment can get.
It would appear from Ms Doswell’s email that this disgraceful and worrying grade was earned because, amongst other things, previous compliance notices issued by Osted about the administration of medication had not been met.
I find it hard to believe that in a residential school for extremely vulnerable special needs pupils, all of whom will be taking some kind of medication, failures to safely administer drugs have been known about and allowed to continue for almost a year.
Are we supposed to sit back and wait until a vulnerable person in the care of the school dies from an overdose or is harmed because of receiving the wrong medicine?
According to Ms Doswell’s email the long downward spiral towards total institutional failure is set to continue and “it is highly likely that Ofsted will return in the very near future” and that “we will read some criticism” about yet more failures to keep pupils in the school’s care well and safe.
Yet Ms Doswell tries to put a positive spin on the latest in a series of condemnatory inspection by saying that “I should like categorically to reassure staff that Ofsted have not said they wish to close Bradstow”.
This shameful comment suggests to me that the headmistress believes that keeping open a school, with a track record of seriously neglecting its pupils, is a good thing and something to celebrate.
It also angers me to note that Ms Doswell’s email offers no apology to the pupils of the school for having to tolerate poor and inadequate care for a prolonged period of time.
Nor does she offer parents and carers of the pupils, who must be very worried by recent events, any apology or reassurance either. In fact, I wonder if Ms Doswell has even bothered to write to parents and carers about the latest Ofsted inspection. I suspect not.
Ms Doswell’s email is a sad illustration of the condescending attitude of many of those managing and services for autistic, learning disabled , and other vulnerable people, which is that poor and second rate care is all that they deserve, hence the pleasure that her school isn’t being closed for being inadequate.
I must make it clear, however, that most of the staff at Bradstow are hard-working and dedicated and do all they can in difficult circumstances to care for the pupils. Since publishing my article last week, I have been contacted by several people associated with the school who have described to me a regime of widespread bullying and intimidation of staff by senior managers. Each one of them says that the bullying, plus generally poor management, is what has brought to the school to its knees. I will be writing about this soon.
In the meantime the school should be closed for the safety of the pupils. A full independent investigation into the failings of the school carried out and new, more effective, management team installed before the school reopens.
Call out. If you have information about Bradstow school which you think should be made public please contact me in total confidence at ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk 07866 588 766
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