- Independent mental health service
Barnt Green
Assessment report published 5 September 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Priory Barnt Green is a 33 bedded independent hospital in Lickey Hills, Birmingham, providing care and treatment to people who are experiencing mental health issues. The hospital is run by Priory Healthcare. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission in August 2020.
The hospital comprises of 3 wards:
- Beacon ward is a 10 bedded mixed gender private acute mental health ward for adults of working age.
- Jubilee is a 13 bedded mixed gender NHS acute mental health ward for adults of working age.
- Clent ward is a 10 bedded female NHS psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) mental health ward for adults of working age.
We carried out a site visit to the service on 27 and 28 May 2025, followed by offsite activities. The inspection team consisted of 3 CQC inspectors and 1 specialist advisor. On the day of our onsite assessment, there were 22 patients across the service, 11 on Jubilee ward, 7 on Clent ward and 4 on Beacon Ward. The hospital provides care to both informal patients and those detained under the Mental Health Act.
The service was previously rated requires improvement overall. Following this inspection, the rating has stayed the same. We inspected all quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions to achieve this rating. The service was previously rated as requires improvement in the key questions effective and well-led. The rating for effective has changed to good, and the rating for well-led has remained the same. The service was previously rated as good for the key question safe, however the rating for this key question has changed to requires improvement following this assessment. The provider has remained in breach of regulation in relation to good governance.
The provider was in breach of 2 regulations in relation to Safe Care and Treatment and Good Governance. We identified issues around Infection, prevention and control (IPC). Staff did not always ensure that the ward environment on Jubilee and Clent ward was clean and well-maintained. We observed visibly unclean areas in the communal areas of Jubilee and Clent ward. We identified that the provider's governance processes were not always effective. The provider did not have robust systems and processes in place to safely support Jubilee patients to seclusion.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.