The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust it needs to improve the care provided to young people using its mental health services at the Beacon Centre.
The Beacon Centre is a 16-bed mixed gender inpatient child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) unit for young people aged between 13 – 18 years old. The service cares for people with a range of mental health disorders when their needs cannot be safely met in the community.
CQC carried out a focused inspection in October, following information of concern that was received from the trust.
As a result of this inspection, the overall rating of CAMHS services at the trust have moved from Good to Requires Improvement, and the safety of services have been rated as Inadequate. It was also rated Requires Improvement for the effectiveness of the service and whether it was well-led.
When it was previously inspected in September 2017, it was rated Good overall. Inspectors returned to review the service in October 2020 following information of concern shared by the Trust.
CQC’s Head of Hospital Inspection (Mental Health and Community Health Services), Jane Ray, said:
“The Trust leadership identified some concerns with the service earlier this year and had developed an implementation plan to address these, but limited progress had been made to put in place the agreed actions to ensure that young people were safe and received good care.
“Following our inspection, the Trust is aware that improvements must be implemented promptly. We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that swift action is taken.”
At this inspection, CQC look at staffing levels and competencies, how staff managed patient risk and restrictive interventions, how lessons were learned and how the service was managed overall.
CQC inspectors found:
- Staff morale was low and employees did not feel supported or valued by management
- There were insufficient numbers of staff working on each shift who had received appropriate training to keep the young people safe from avoidable harm
- Some agency staff did not always treat people with compassion and kindness
- Risk management arrangements were inadequate, and handovers were ineffective, meaning staff could be unaware of a patient’s risk status
- Documentation of a young person’s refusal to take medication or the date that liquid medications had been opened was inconsistent
- Staff did not always follow policy for ensuring young people were kept safe following the administration of rapid tranquilisation
- There was an inconsistent approach to the de-escalation of incidents on the ward and the appropriate use of restraint
- Safeguarding alerts were not always submitted to the local authority
- Lessons learned were not always shared with the whole team or wider service
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on the CQC website here.
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