Archived: The Hayes

Updated 10 September 2019

The Hayes is a community-based clinical centre provided by Midlands Psychology Community Interest Company. The Hayes provides specialised assessment, diagnostic and intervention services for children (0-18 years) with an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). At the time of the inspection it was commissioned by the local clinical commissioning group to provide 600 autism assessments and since April 2019, 25 associated interventions across the South Staffordshire area, each year. The commissioning contract is due to be re-tendered in September 2019.

The Hayes also provide training programmes to children, parents and professionals. They take referrals from any professional who knows the child and thinks they need an assessment for autism.

They see young people in a range of venues such as health centres, schools, libraries but their main base is at The Hayes in Stafford.

The Hayes autism service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Personal care
• Diagnostic and screening procedures

We last carried out a comprehensive inspection for this hospital in December 2016, we rated it as good overall and good for all five domains; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

There was a registered manager at the time of inspection 

Updated 10 September 2019

We rated The Hayes as good because:

• The service provided safe care. Clinical premises where children and young people were seen were safe and clean. There were no waiting lists ensuring that young people were seen promptly. Staff understood how to protect children and young people from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so. All information needed to deliver patient care was available to all relevant staff when they needed it and in an accessible form.
• Staff developed care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the children and young people and staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• Staff considered risk within their appointments and care notes but did not always complete the risk assessment document to evidence that risk had been considered, for example by documenting there was no risk.
• The teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of the children and young people. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multi-disciplinary team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff treated children and young people with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of children and young people. They actively involved children and young people and families and carers in care decisions.
• The teams met the needs of all young people who use the service – including those with a protected characteristic. Staff helped children and young people with communication, advocacy and cultural support.
• The service had clear criteria for which children and young people would be offered a service. The service had a range of rooms and equipment to support treatment and care. Staff treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results
• The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that procedures relating to the work of the service ran smoothly.

However:

• Whilst notes were accessible staff did not always follow best practice when completing their care note; notes were not always continuous with page numbers, dated and signed. There was no index and therefore records were not always easy to navigate.
• Not all staff could explain the principles of Gillick competence as they applied to people under the age of 16 and we did not find evidence that Gillick competence had been assessed in one record. Gillick competency is where a person (under 16 years of age) is assessed and deemed to have the competence to make decision about their own care, without the need for parental consent.
• We found four responses to complaints to be defensive in their tone and content.

Updated 10 September 2019