- SERVICE PROVIDER
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Report from 6 February 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 11 June to 25 June 2024. We conducted an unannounced assessment of the mental health crisis services and health-based place of safety at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in response to concerns we had about risk. Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust is the Mental Health and Learning Disability NHS Trust for County Durham and Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York and Selby. The trust has 167 services across 66 locations and provides 10 core services: • Specialist community mental health services for children and young people • Community mental health services with learning disabilities or autism • Community-based mental health services for older people • Community-based mental health services for adults of working age • Mental health crisis services, liaison and health-based places of safety • Wards for people with a learning disability or autism • Forensic inpatient or secure wards • Long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults • Wards for older people with mental health problems • Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units. The trust also provides one specialist service. We gathered information from people using the service and carers, staff and other external stakeholders. We observed the care being provided and reviewed a range of documents including care records and the Trust’s policies and procedures. The judgements found, unless otherwise stated, apply to all of the mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety supplied by the trust. We found breaches of regulation in relation to staffing and governance. There were not enough staff who were appropriately trained to ensure people’s safety and meet their needs and systems and processes did not always appropriately monitor and manage governance processes and systems. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We spoke to 14 people who have used or currently use the service and 8 carers of people who have used or currently use the service. Some of the feedback received was in relation to inpatient services and is not included in our report. The feedback we received was mixed; 9 people and 5 carers said the service acted in an open and transparent way, whilst 5 people said the service had not been open and transparent. One person said they had been hung up on, and another said they were “treated like rubbish”. Ten people and 3 carers said there were enough staff to meet people’s needs and were able to respond to any concerns raised. One person did state there was a lack of psychologists on a weekend and a carer said there had been an issue where a member of the team wasn't aware of a change in medications but this was rectified. Although 1 person had been given a feedback form and another person was told the service would call them for feedback at a later date, 12 people and 2 carers said they were not told how they could feedback on the service they had received. The majority of people we spoke to had never raised a complaint about the service, but 3 people who had raised complaints were not happy with either not getting a response or the response being generic. Most people said they felt the service had kept them safe and they were involved in their care planning. However, 3 people told us the service had not made them feel safe and 1 said they felt let down and their concerns weren't taken seriously. Most people we spoke to said staff were kind, caring, respectful and interested in their wellbeing. They also said that their family members and carers needs were considered by staff and that family and carers were kept updated on their progress. All people and carers we spoke to who had accessed the services locations said it was clean, comfortable and accessible.