The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published reports on two services run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, following inspections in February and March.
Inspectors assessed the trust’s long stay rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults and its wards for older people with mental health problems. These services care for people experiencing poor mental health, including those detained under the Mental Health Act.
Following these inspections, the long stay rehabilitation wards were again rated requires improvement overall, as well as for being effective and well-led. They were again rated good for being safe, caring and responsive.
Wards for older people with mental health problems were again rated good overall, as well as for being effective, responsive and well-led. Their rating for caring has been raised from good to outstanding. They were again rated requires improvement for being safe.
The overall rating for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust remains good.
Antoinette Smith, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said:
“When we inspected these services, we were pleased to see leaders responding to issues and encouraging improvement through equal relationships between staff and people in the service.
“We saw leaders on long stay rehabilitation wards had developed a clear strategy to help people develop their independence, and staff had reduced the use of blanket policies which restricted people unnecessarily, which were concerns we raised at our last inspection.
“On wards for older people, we saw the trust extensively involved people, their loved ones or carers, and staff to develop the service, with one person telling us they felt truly looked after from the heart by caring staff. This resulted in several improvements, including additional support for people and their loved ones with the emotional impacts of end-of-life care.
“However, we found people’s safety on wards for older people was still being affected by gaps in training such as manual handling, physical health checks, and safeguarding.
“Similarly, we found some changes on long stay rehabilitation wards hadn’t been implemented consistently across all parts of the service, and leaders need to ensure they have enough oversight to embed these further.
“We'll continue to monitor these services, including through further inspections, to ensure people are receiving safe care and support the trust to continue building on the improvements made so far.”
Inspectors also found:
- People had good physical health support across both services, and significant improvements had been made for people on long stay wards
- Wards for older people offered drama therapy to help people feel more empowered, and ensured this was also accessible to people who didn’t communicate verbally. Staff told inspectors these sessions had particularly improved the moods and cognitive ability of people with dementia
- Wards for older people supported people experiencing anxiety through new sensory machines, such as interactive projectors
- A psychologist in the long stay wards was piloting the use of virtual reality headsets to support the well-being of both staff and people experiencing anxiety.
However:
- People on long stay rehabilitation wards weren’t always cared for by staff who knew them well, as the service used a high level of agency staff
- People on long stay rehabilitation wards didn’t always have access to care plans in formats they could easily understand
- Staff said they sometimes felt pressure to admit people to long stay rehabilitation wards who weren’t ready for rehabilitation, leading to longer stays.
Find out more
Read the report published 4 August 2023:
Long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults
Wards for older people with mental health problems