Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) wards have improved from requires improvement to good, following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in April.
Inspectors visited Parkview Clinic, which has three wards for 11-to-18-year-olds; Heathlands, Irwin and Ashfield. Ashfield was closed at the time of the inspection, however it was due to re-open in June.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s continual checks on the safety and quality of healthcare services, as well as to check on the progress of improvements CQC told them to make at their previous inspection.
Following the inspection, as well as the overall rating for CAMHS wards improving from requires improvement to good, as have the ratings for being safe and well-led. Effective has been re-rated as good. Caring and responsive were not included in this inspection and remain rated as good.
The overall rating for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust wasn’t affected by this inspection and remains rated as requires improvement.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said:
When we inspected Parkview Clinic, we were pleased to find leaders and staff had been working hard to improve the standard of care being delivered to children and young people since our last inspection.
Safety had improved. Effective systems were in place so staff could feedback any learning, and improvements were made as a result to reduce the risk of harm to people. It was also positive to hear children and young people felt safe, and their concerns were taken seriously.
Additionally, there was a flexible visiting policy in place, so people could spend evenings and weekends with their families and friends. Relatives found comfort that they could ring the ward at any time to check in on their loved one.
However, we did find training in immediate life support was low for newly employed nurses, but the trust has informed us that since the inspection, more training has taken place to keep people safe.
Staff should be proud of the care they’re providing to people using this service. We’ll continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure it builds on the improvements it has already made, and to ensure further necessary changes are made and embedded.
Inspectors found:
- Records showed that where a young person was involved in an incident their parent was informed of this and the action taken to reduce the risk of it happening again.
- Staff understood safeguarding and there were effective systems in place to ensure children and young people were protected from abuse.
- Records included a summary from parents on how to care for their child or young person. It also included any other professionals or services that the person was involved with.
- Leaders were told about any poor culture that might affect the quality of children and young people’s care, and have an impact on staff, and this was addressed quickly.
However:
- Children and young people felt there were not always enough staff which meant they could not always go out on leave or to school.
- On Irwin ward not all nursing staff were consistently having meetings with their manager to discuss their workload and people’s needs to ensure they were providing safe and effective care.
The full report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.