The child and adolescent mental health wards at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following an inspection undertaken in March and April 2022.
The inspection was carried out to assess whether improvements had been made to the service after significant shortcomings were found at a previous inspection in May and June 2021. This led to CQC rating the service inadequate and placing restrictions on it.
The latest inspection assessed all three children and adolescent mental health wards at the service, located at the St Aubyn Centre in Colchester and Rochford Hospital. It found improvements had been made, with improved staffing levels and better leadership having a positive impact right across the service.
Due to the progress inspectors found, the service’s rating moves from inadequate to requires improvement overall and the restrictions put on the service have now been removed. It also moves from inadequate to requires improvement for being safe and well-led. The rating for how caring the service is has improved from inadequate to good.
The service wasn’t previously rated for being effective or responsive to people’s needs, due to insufficient evidence, but it has been rated good for being effective and requires improvement for being responsive following the latest inspection.
Craig Howarth, CQC head of hospital inspection, said:
“I am pleased to see improvements have been made to the service, but there is still work to be done to ensure every child and young person using it receives the right care and support.
“Our inspection found that there were now enough staff to safely care for people, but some children and young people told us they didn’t always know those caring for them, which made them uncomfortable. Some hadn’t met their named nurses at all.
“Leaders had an improved understanding of the services they managed and the needs of those in their care but we’ve told the trust what it still must do to improve further.
“We will continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections, to assess whether the progress we have seen has been embedded and sustained.”
The service was rated requires improvement because:
- Not all staff respected children and young people’s privacy and confidentiality
- Staff didn’t provide information to people on how to share feedback on care
- Children and young people didn’t always have access to snacks without being dependent on staff.
However:
- Some improvements had been made at the service
- There were enough medical and specialist staff to keep people safe
- Wards were safe and clean
- Staff assessed and managed risk well
- Safeguarding followed good practice
- Holistic, recovery-focused patient care plans had been developed by staff
- A range of treatments were available
- Staff understood and carried out their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act, and they followed good practice regarding young people’s competency and capacity to consent to, or refuse, treatment.