Mental health inpatient services in Essex no longer 'inadequate'
The Care Quality Commission has had another look at child and adolescent mental health wards at the Essex Partnership Trust
Essex Partnership NHS Trust - this service that runs mental health services across Essex - has been told its wards for children and young people still requires improvement.
It's an improvment on the previous 'inadequate' rating handed down by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Inspectors looked at three child and adolescent mental health wards at the St Aubyn Centre in Colchester and Rochford Hospital.
It found improvements had been made, with enhanced staffing levels and better leadership right across the service.
The service has been rated 'good' for being effective at responding to people's needs and 'requires improvement' for being responsive.
It remains 'requires improvement' overall because not all staff respected young people's confidentiality and didn't always provide information to people on how to share feedback.
Children and young people also didn’t always have access to snacks.
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.”