CQC improves rating for our acute mental health services

We have welcomed the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into our services for acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units.

In May 2021 these services were rated as ‘inadequate’, they have been inspected again and rated as ‘requires improvement’.

The CQC found that acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units had:

  • Improved leadership
  • Improved morale of staff
  • Improved training in managing violence and aggression
  • Specialist staff available or based in teams to help give good care to service users
  • Made improvements to inpatient accommodation
  • Treated service users with respect and kindness.

Beverley Murphy, Director of Nursing, Professions and Operations and Dr Mike Hunter, Medical Director at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are pleased that the CQC has recognised the improvements we have made for our service users. These improvements are a result of the dedication and commitment of our staff.

“Our staff have shown determination to make things better for people in Sheffield with wide-ranging improvements. We’ve shown we can work well as a team and our service users tell us we are caring and supportive. We are really pleased to see our ratings in the categories of safe, responsive and well led have improved. This positive outcome will continue to motivate all our teams to keep improving.

“We have more work to do to ensure that service users in Sheffield get the very best care from us. We will be continuing our programme of work to improve our services; our aim has always been to get back to an overall rating of ‘good’.”

The CQC found that the teams in acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units work well together as a team and most people they spoke to said they felt positively about their care, felt safe and thought staff were supportive and caring.

The overall rating of the Trust remains as ‘requires improvement’.

You can read the CQC's full report on our acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units here