Ivetsey Bank Hospital

Ratings - Child and adolescent mental health wards

• Overall

  Inadequate

• Safe

  Inadequate

• Effective

  Requires improvement

• Caring

  Inadequate

• Responsive

  Requires improvement

• Well-led

  Inadequate

Our view of the service

Ivetsey Bank Hospital is a Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) hospital for young people aged 12-17 with a diagnosed mental health condition.

Ivetsey Bank was registered with CQC on 5 March 2023 to deliver the regulated activities: Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury (TDDI).

We carried out an on-site assessment at Ivetsey Bank Hospital on 10,11,12, 17 March and 15 April 2026. We asked for and reviewed data related to the assessment.

We visited the following wards as part of the assessment: Hartley: Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (12 beds), Thorneycroft: General Adolescent Service (12 beds), Wedgwood: Eating Disorders Service (6 beds). At the time of our inspection, Glazewood, the new Admissions and Triage Unit (6 beds) was not currently open and we were not given a date as to when this was expected to reopen.

We carried out this inspection in response to a number of incidents in which young people had experienced harm following the ingestion of items and the use of restraint. In addition, we had planned to inspect the Admissions and Triage Unit, Glazewood, as this was a new ward that had not previously been inspected.

We had previously inspected this service in July 2025. This was a responsive assessment due to some concerns we identified in relation to a serious incident that occurred at the service. During the inspection, we found that the provider had taken appropriate actions to address and mitigate safety risks. We assessed a small number of quality statements from the safe and well-led key questions and found areas of good practice.

At this assessment we undertook a fully comprehensive assessment and assessed 1 assessment service group; Child and adolescent mental health wards. We identified areas of concern around young people’s safety, environment and governance processes. As a result, we took enforcement action and issued 2 warning notices.

At this assessment we identified breaches of Regulations: 9 Person Centered Care, 12 Safe Care and Treatment, 15 Premises and Equipment, 17 Good Governance and 18 Staffing.

We issued two warning notices on Active Young People Limited on 24 April 2026 for failing to meet the regulations related to good governance and safe care and treatment at Ivetsey Bank Hospital.

This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

People's experience of this service

We spoke with 13 young people, 4 on Hartley ward, 3 on Wedgwood and 6 on Thorneycroft. We also spoke to 4 carers and reviewed feedback and community meeting minutes. Overall people’s experience was mixed with young people on Wedgwood praising the care and support they received. On Hartley and Thorneycroft wards young people told us that they did not always feel safe and that staff were not always respectful. Two young people on Thorneycroft told us that they had experienced pain and bruising following the use of restraint.

Carers that we spoke with also shared mixed feedback depending on the ward. Carers for young people receiving treatment on Wedgwood ward praised the support and involvement from staff. Whereas 2 family members we spoke with for the other wards raised concerns around how some staff members spoke to young people. One carer raised ongoing concerns with the services’ treatment of physical health conditions and lack of communication with family.

Community meetings were held to enable young people to give feedback about their care, and we reviewed the minutes from the previous 2 meetings held on each ward. We noted that attendance on each ward varied. It was not clear from the minutes of these meetings that actions had been taken in relation to feedback from young people, including leaking toilets and broken doors on Hartley ward which were a continuing issue. Young people on Hartley raised concerns about the use of Maybo holds and bruising they saw as a result of holds in 1 meeting (Maybo provides organisations with the training, tools and guidance to reduce and manage conflict and behaviours of concern, leading to positive and safer outcomes.). On Thorneycroft ward 4 young people stated that they had not been involved in updating their care plans in the past week.