East Thanet MP Polly Billington calls for county council to save Bradstow School from closure

Labour MP for East Thanet Polly Billington has written to Conservative-controlled Kent County Council (KCC) calling on the authority to take action to save Bradstow School in Broadstairs from closure.

The school and residential home, for children aged between 5-19 years with severe intellectual disabilities who are on the autistic spectrum continuum, is earmarked for closure in August.

It is maintained by the London Borough of Wandsworth, with 14 other councils, including Kent County Council, placing children there.

Currently KCC is the largest user of the site with placements of 14 of the 33 children compared to just four from Wandsworth.

Wandsworth Council says it wants to provide SEND services for its youngsters within its own borough and has invested £41million in provision for that purpose.

Proposals for KCC to take over the Bradstow School site had been under discussion since November 2021 but in October this year the county council decided not to progress any further.

Wandsworth says this has resulted in the “difficult decision to propose closure by August 2025, pending a comprehensive consultation process.”

Ms Billington has now become involved with her letter saying she is concerned that KCC owes Wandsworth more than £2 million in unpaid bills for the care of Kent pupils.

In June sources told The Isle of Thanet News the sum had been withheld due to disagreement over how services should be delivered.

Ms Billington said: “Wandsworth has offered to transfer ownership of the school over to KCC – including all land. I implore {KCC) to do the right thing and allow this transfer to happen and keep the school operating.”

She says due to KCC ‘refusing Wandsworth’s offer’ families have been left feeling desperate over the possibility they may not be able to keep their children at Bradstow.

In her letter, she added: “The school supports and educates some of the most vulnerable young people in society, with some of the most complex needs. Some of the children require secure provision and rely on the specialist support that Bradstow offers them.

“We already have a crisis in SEND education capacity within Kent. This is particularly acute in East Thanet, where Bradstow school is based. Closing this school will only exacerbate this crisis and deny children the right to a high-quality education.

“I understand the dire financial situation KCC is in after 14 years of Tory austerity, but this would be an extremely short-sighted decision. Placing these children in alternative provisions would likely end up being much more costly in the long-term, as well as being detrimental to the children’s wellbeing.

“They have been failed by mainstream schools again and again – any suggestion that they may be able to be properly supported in a mainstream setting does not understand the realities these families and children face.”

The MP says that during a visit to the school she heard “harrowing and deeply moving stories about how life-changing {Bradstow} is for the children who are there.”

Ms Billington added: “I have had conversations with Bradstow School, Wandsworth Council and the families and all three want to work with KCC to resolve this issue and keep the school open.

“Crucially, they are willing to be flexible in how they approach this. It’s troubling that KCC is currently blocking this from progressing.”

A Kent County Council (KCC) spokesperson said: “KCC is working to find alternative educational provision for the pupils currently attending Bradstow School.

“Individual plans for each student will seek to minimise the disruption to young people and their families arising from the transition.”

‘Life-changing implications’

During a Wandsworth Council meeting this month a letter from a staff member at Bradstow, was read out to the committee. It said: “The announcement of the intention to close Bradstow School now creates enormous anxiety and life-changing implications for the young people and the families and the wider community.

“Many, if not all, of the current cohort of young people face the very real risk of finding no suitable alternative placement if and when Bradstow is closed with the likelihood of significant regression in their wellbeing and future prospects.”

Kent County Council concerns and ‘parallel’ plan

Earlier this year, around three months prior to the decision not to continue talks to take over the site, KCC raised concerns about the provision at Bradstow School.

In June, The Isle of Thanet News revealed back up plans to move children out of the school were being made by the county council.

The ‘parallel’ plan came on the heels of Ofsted inspections of social care provision at Bradstow School that initially resulted in a restriction of accommodation notice, preventing further children from being admitted to the home.

That restriction was lifted after a follow-up inspection last December but a rating of ‘requires improvement’ remained. This applied to the residential operations, the education provision at the school has been rated Outstanding by Ofsted.

The main issues raised in the September 2023 inspection were a lack of management oversight regarding behaviour and physical interventions and stretched staffing due to people leaving and high levels of sickness.

KCC listed a number of concerns including that of a social care and police investigation into medication errors at the school.

Other concerns alleged by KCC included:

• Medication management with practices that were “not effective” and  inconsistencies with information as well as avoidable mistakes made when administering medicine to children
• Unexplained accidents and injuries to children who should have been in 1-1 or 2-1 care with some youngsters needing hospital treatment
• Incidents of children leaving the premises ‘undetected’
• Children left alone for long periods without staff supervision
• Police, social workers and parents not always being notified of significant incidents
• Lack of staff and use of agency staff
• Concerns over records not being available
• Concerns over the condition of one of the bungalows

In a letter to parents at the end of May KCC said: “Given what KCC is aware of, KCC holds a statutory obligation to make decisions to promote (children’s) safety.

“With the evidence available it is best to parallel plan to identify alternative provisions so KCC is best prepared to make arrangements in case Bradstow School demonstrates it is unable to sufficiently address the concerns.”

The letter said if KCC needed to take ‘emergency measures’ then “children may need to return home until a suitable, alternative placement is identified.”

‘Safeguarding issues’

One parent said: “I am a parent of a child who had to, for their safety, be removed from Bradstow. I doubt that this place will recover in the care of the current management who contributed to its decline. Families are continuing to remove their loved ones due to severe safeguarding issues.”

Stretched staffing

A source also said staffing ratios had been “at rock bottom” with a lack of support from management.

Disciplinary action had been taken against members due to time off sick and parents had raised concerns over a number of issues including a lack of communication from management.

According to a survey of members at the school carried out by the GMB union at that time some 92% of members said they would like to be balloted for strike action if health and safety concerns were not properly addressed.

The school has since installed a new Principal following an internal promotion.

Site disposal?

In February The Isle of Thanet News reported that an internal document drawn up by consultants and focusing on asset management at Wandsworth Council listed potential sale of several properties including Bradstow School.

An asset management document published by the authority listed Bradstow School as a “very high value site for alternate use.”