- SERVICE PROVIDER
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 19 November 2025
Contents
Ratings - Wards for people with learning disabilities or autism
Our view of the service
We carried out an assessment of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, wards for people with a learning disability and autistic people between 16 July 2025 and 23 July 2025. The team visited Byron Court.
Byron Court is a mixed-gender assessment and treatment unit based in Billericay. It is commissioned for 7 beds; however, the trust is commissioned for 11 beds across Essex as part of the Essex Learning Disability Partnership. At the time of our inspection there was 1 person currently at Byron Court.
The team carried out a comprehensive inspection, covering all the quality statements in all key questions.
Byron Court was previously inspected and rated as requires improvement. Following this inspection, the rating remains requires improvement. We rated the service as requires improvement because we found a breach of the legal regulations in relation to Regulation 17 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Good Governance.
Governance systems and audits were not effective in identifying or addressing the areas for improvement that we identified at this inspection.
During our inspection we found there were still concerns as identified at the previous inspection relating to care and treatment records.
Since the last inspection, the service had made improvements to most of the previous concerns we had identified, where 5 out of 6 concerns were now met. We found improvements in staffing; the service now had enough permanent regular nursing and support staff to keep people safe. The service had ensured that blood glucose machines were fully calibrated. The service had ensured that staff accurately recorded administration of medicines, and that consent to treatment forms were accessible. The service had ensured staff recorded people’s vital signs in the physical health observation charts. The service had ensured that staff had access to specialist learning disability and autism training.
People's experience of this service
During this inspection we spoke with 1 person and 1 carer. Feedback was positive, and the person we spoke with said staff were kind and respectful, they met regularly with their named nurse, staff were available when they needed support, they felt safe on the ward and were supported to understand risks and how to keep safe. The person we spoke with said they were given a de-brief after incidents. They said staff asked for their feedback about the ward, and they knew how to make a complaint if they needed to, there was a good choice of activities and food on the ward, they were given information about their care and treatment and felt involved in making decisions.
The carer we spoke with said staff were helpful, supportive, welcoming and open to ideas on how to best support their relative, they said the ward was clean and tidy, the food was good, and the staff shopped for their relative’s needs. The carer we spoke with said they felt the whole package of care was individualised to their relative’s needs, they had a copy of the care plan and were very involved in the reviews of this. They also told us they had been involved in improving and developing the service.
Throughout the inspection we saw positive interactions between staff and people. We saw staff communicate in a way that was suitable for the persons communication needs.