Head Office

Ratings - Patient transport services

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

Head Office was managed by SSC Secure Transport Ltd. The service provided secure transport for patients with mental health conditions, including patients detained under the Mental Health Act. The service collected patients from their own homes, hospitals, and custodial settings. They transported patients to hospitals or other facilities to receive treatment for their mental health conditions.

We carried out a responsive assessment of the service on the 24 June 2026. This followed our February 2023 assessment, where the service was rated requires improvement overall and in the safe and well-led key questions.

During this assessment, we rated the service as good. The provider had made improvements since the February 2023 assessment. This included completing individual risk assessments and introducing clearer inclusion and exclusion criteria for secure transport. Staff told us they felt supported by managers and spoke positively about the working environment. The service had also improved induction and training, introduced key performance indicators and maintained vehicles to a good standard.

However, we remained concerned about monitoring patients’ physical health during and after restraint and sedation, and the recording of observations. We also had concerns that information governance systems did not ensure the confidentiality of patient records.

We found ongoing breaches to regulation 12 relating to safe care and treatment and regulation 17 relating to good governance. An action plan will be requested upon publication of the final report.

People's experience of this service

We did not observe care or speak with patients during this assessment.

We reviewed feedback data and individual patient or other service reviews of people’s experience. This included survey results and written feedback received directly by the service.

We saw that survey results showed 99% of respondents were positive about the service received.

Individual feedback showed a positive experience. Examples included that staff were ‘compassionate and helpful’, ‘amazing at communicating with the service user’, helping a patient manage their anxiety while waiting, ‘provided excellent support to a young person’. Others included that staff were ‘welcoming and kind’ and ‘very nice to me’. We also saw examples where feedback included examples of person-centred care, including a crew member giving a patient a stuffed toy to help ease any anxiety, and another where staff had waited for the patient to finish their morning prayers.