- SERVICE PROVIDER
Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 30 March 2026
Contents
Ratings - Child and adolescent mental health wards
Our view of the service
Pebble Lodge is an inpatient mental health ward for children and young people, provided by Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust. It is located at Alumhurst Road in Bournemouth. Pebble Lodge is within a site that includes inpatient mental health services for adults and a mother and baby unit.
Pebble Lodge has 10 bedrooms, consists of one mixed-sex ward and offers care and treatment to young people aged between 12 and 18 years old. It provides 24-hour specialist care and treatment for those with mental health conditions. Young people can be admitted with their consent or detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Pebble Lodge has an on-site school, which is registered with Ofsted.
CQC last inspected Pebble Lodge in March 2019. The service was rated as outstanding.
This was an unannounced comprehensive inspection. We carried it out because it had been 6 years since the last inspection.
Pebble Lodge is registered to provide the regulated activities:
- Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
We inspected Pebble Lodge on 3 December 2025. Our inspection team comprised:
- 3 CQC inspectors
- a CQC national professional advisor
- a CQC senior specialist
- and an expert by experience.
Before the inspection visit, we reviewed information that we held about the trust.
During and after the inspection visit, the inspection team:
- visited Pebble Lodge and specifically checked the environment
- interviewed 2 ward managers
- interviewed the service manager
- interviewed 2 responsible clinicians
- interviewed and spoke with 11 staff members a social worker, nurses and support workers
- spoke with 6 young people who were using the service and 5 family members
- reviewed 5 care and treatment records
- carried out a specific check of the medication management and prescribing processes
- and reviewed a range of policies, procedures and other documents relating to the running of the service.
After this inspection, we rated the service as good.
Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act Compliance Summary
We include our assessment of the trust’s compliance with the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act in our overall inspection of the core service.
We do not give a rating for Mental Health Act or Mental Capacity Act. However, we do use our findings to determine the overall rating for the service.
People's experience of this service
There were 10 young people using the service at the time of the inspection. Young people told us staff were kind, protective and respectful. Most young people told us there were enough therapies and activities they could participate in but some parents felt more activities away from the ward should be available and that planned activities were not always carried out.
Parents told us the regular staff were friendly, kind and patient and were genuinely interested in their children’s recovery. Parents were involved in their children’s care and “felt listed to and like their voices mattered.”