Updated 20 March 2024
Ivetsey Bank Hospital Stafford is a child and adolescent mental health service, provided by Active Young People Ltd since 28 February 2021.
The service provides care for 37 children and young people aged 12 to 18 years. The hospital admits informal and detained children and young people.
Ivetsey Bank Hospital consists of 3 wards: Hartley, Thorneycroft and Wedgewood. Hartley ward is a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) providing 12 beds.
The PICU offers care to children and young people suffering from mental health problems who require specialist and intensive treatment. There is an additional bed in the extra care area which is attached to the ward. The extra care area is used for young people who require long term segregation to manage their care needs. This area was in use at the time of our inspection.
Thorneycroft ward is a general child and adolescent mental health (GAU) unit with 12 beds for young people aged 12 to 18 years. The children and young people treated there have a range of diagnoses from psychosis and bipolar disorder to depression.
Wedgewood ward is a specialist eating disorder unit (EDU), which provides services for 12 children and young people. The children and young people treated here have a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, or other disordered eating conditions. The ward was closed to admissions at the time of our inspection and there were only 3 young people admitted.
Ivetsey Bank Hospital Stafford has a registered manager and is registered to provide the following regulated activities:
• Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
We previously inspected the service in June 2023. At that inspection, we undertook an unannounced comprehensive inspection to follow up on concerns raised around patient safety at the inspection in November 2022.
We rated the service as inadequate in well led and requires improvement for the other domains.
At this inspection we carried out an unannounced focussed inspection and reviewed progress made against the Warning Notices served to the provider at the previous inspection. We visited the site between 17 January and 24 January 2024 and inspected the Safe and Well led domains.
What people who use the service say
Young people we spoke with told us staff helped them to progress, and they were involved in decision making about their care. They worked with staff to develop care plans and positive behaviour support plans with members of the multidisciplinary team. They were offered copies of their care plans.
All the young people said there were lots of activities with lots of choice. Most young people told us they liked the staff and staff were kind.
Some patients on Thorneycroft said they did not always feel safe when the ward was disturbed and staff could not attend to their needs as quickly as they wanted due to a higher than usual level of incidents.
Young people said that staff listened to them when they had concerns and acted quickly to make improvements when needed. They had been asked their views on how the service could be improved, such as new furniture and decoration.