- Independent mental health service
Cheadle Royal Hospital
Assessment report published 19 August 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Our overall rating at Cheadle Royal Hospital has remained the same. Cheadle Royal Hospital was rated as requires improvement at the previous inspection and at this inspection the rating has remained requires improvement. The rating for child and adolescent mental health wards has improved. Child and adolescent mental health wards were rated requires improvement at the last inspection and at this inspection the rating has changed to good.
We inspected Cheadle Royal Hospital on 21 April 2026.
We inspected the service due to information of concern received since the last inspection about the child and adolescent mental health ward (Woodlands). This was information shared by the Greater Manchester Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provider Collaborative who identified concerns from early 2026 onwards. These concerns related to a number of issues including the management of incidents, therapeutic observations not being correctly documented, staff wellbeing and lack of support from the provider for staff. Young people did not always have access to food to meet their needs or access to adequate bedding. There were also environmental, infection prevention and control and medicines management issues. In February 2026 this led to the provider collaborative increasing the frequency of their visits to the ward in line with their quality assurance framework. A follow up visit by the provider collaborative in March 2026 found improvements in relation to all the identified issues.
Cheadle Royal Hospital was registered with CQC in December 2010 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. The service had a controlled drugs accountable officer and a Registered Manager.
At the previous inspection of Cheadle Royal Hospital, in December 2024, we rated the child and adolescent mental health wards as requires improvement overall with requires improvement ratings for safe, responsive and well led and good ratings for caring and effective. We identified breaches of Regulation 9: Person-centred care, Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment, Regulation 15: Premises and equipment, Regulation 17: Good governance and Regulation 18: Staffing. At this inspection we found the breaches of Regulations 9, 15, 17 and 18 to be resolved. However, we found a number of issues which evidenced an ongoing breach of Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment including issues with the care environment, management of incidents and the storage of medicines.
We visited the following wards as part of the inspection:
- Woodlands ward, CAMHS Low Secure Unit with 10 beds
- Featherstone ward, due to 1 young person being nursed in long term segregation on this ward
At this inspection we assessed 1 assessment service group: Child and adolescent mental health wards, where we assessed all 33 quality statements.
We have inspected the service against `Right support, right care, right culture' guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
At the time of the inspection there were 6 young people admitted to the main ward and 1 young person in long term segregation on another ward, which was not in general use.
We carried out a tour of both wards and inspected the clinic room and the ward seclusion suite. We spoke with 2 young people and 2 family carers. We interviewed the ward manager and 6 other members of staff including registered nurses, healthcare support workers and the responsible clinician (a consultant psychologist). We reviewed 5 sets of care records, the prescription charts for all young people and records of incidents including restraints, seclusion and the administration of rapid tranquillisation medication. We observed the multidisciplinary ward round for 1 young person and a shift handover meeting. We reviewed records relating to staffing and the governance and management of the ward.
We rated the child and adolescent mental health wards as good overall. We found 1 breach of the regulations in relation to Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.