All inspections: Bere Clinic - Care Quality Commission

We carried out an unannounced, responsive risk-based assessment of The Bere Clinic on 11 March 2026. The Bere Clinic is a 12-bed independent eating disorder inpatient unit in Hampshire for children and young people aged 12–18, provided by Elysium Healthcare Limited.

The assessment followed concerns raised with CQC about staff culture, leadership, the safety of young people, and naso-gastric tube feeding. We reviewed these in detail and did not find them substantiated.

We looked at 32 quality statements across all five key questions and found areas of good practice. Staffing was sufficient and appropriately skilled, risks were assessed and mitigated, medicines were managed safely, and restrictive practice was minimised. Young people were listened to, staff felt able to speak up, and leaders worked well with local partners and investigated safety events thoroughly.

The overall rating remains good.

We assessed The Bere Clinic on the 11 March 2026.

Bere Clinic is an independent hospital in Hampshire provided by Elysium Healthcare Limited. It provides eating disorder inpatient services for children and young people aged 12–18 years and is a 12-bed unit.

The Bere clinic was registered with CQC in January 2022 to deliver the regulated activities: Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service had a controlled drugs accountable officer and a Registered Manager.

The Bere Clinic was last inspected in 2022 Using the previous inspection framework methodology and found to be good in all domains.

On the 11 March 2026 we carried out this unannounced assessment as a responsive risk based assessment. The inspection was planned following concerns reported to the CQC regarding safety issues relating to staff culture, leadership of the unit the safety of the young people and the management of naso-gastric tube feeding. During this assessment we reviewed these concerns in detail and did not find them to be substantiated.

At this assessment we assessed the service group; specialist eating disorder service. We looked at 32 quality statements from the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and found areas of good practice.

Our overall rating remains good. The service had enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to ensure people’s safety and meet their needs in a secure setting. The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety and minimised the use of restrictive practices. Staff assessed risks to young people’s health and safety and mitigated those risks. Staff ensured medicines were managed safely. The service provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the young people. Staff actively sought information and listened to young people. The service valued a diverse workforce and worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality for staff. The service fostered a positive culture where staff felt that they could speak up. Leaders worked well with their partners across the local system. Concerns about safety were listened to by senior leaders and safety events were investigated and reported thoroughly.

Bere clinic is an independent hospital that is provided by Elysium Healthcare Limited. It is a specialist inpatient eating disorder service for a maximum of 12 young people. It opened in January 2022 and this was the first inspection.

We rated the service as good because:

Staff maintained a strong culture of person-centred care. Staff treated young people with compassion and kindness and respected their privacy and dignity. Young people and their families told us that they felt safe in the hospital. That their risks were safely managed, and that staff were kind, caring and understanding.
Leaders and staff were passionate and proactive about minimising the use of restrictive practices such as restraint.
The service provided safe care. The environment was clean, well-maintained and welcoming. Staff assessed and managed risk well, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented, person centred care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to meet the needs of young people and in line with national best practice guidance.
Managers ensured that staff received training, including specialist eating disorder training. The ward staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team.
Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Managers provided a strong and visible presence within the service. Staff felt respected, supported and valued, and spoke highly of leaders.

However:

Although some staff had recently been recruited, there were vacancies in some key multidisciplinary roles, such as an occupational therapist and family therapist. This meant that young people and families did not have access to all therapies to support their recovery.
A range of leadership, nurse and healthcare assistant posts were vacant. This meant that the hospital director was often required to support clinically which took them away from other duties such as supervising staff.
Staff told us they were not receiving supervision in line with the provider’s policy.
The service did not have a process in place for monitoring the quality of the young peoples’ care files and to ensure that updates about care and treatment were recorded and available to staff delivering care.
Some potential ligature anchor points existed that could have been removed. This included window restrictors and bathroom doors.

Bere Clinic

All Inspections

During an assessment of Specialist eating disorder services

During an assessment of the hospital overall

24 October 2022

During a routine inspection