- Independent mental health service
Cygnet Hospital Godden Green
Assessment report published 19 June 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 30 April 2024
Cygnet Hospital Godden Green is a 33-bedded, Independent Mental Health hospital that provides specialist acute and psychiatric intensive care (PICU) services for women.
Castle ward is a 12-bedded specialist PICU service for women and accepts emergency and crisis admissions.
Oakwood ward is a 15-bedded acute service for women who are experiencing an acute episode of mental illness and require an emergency admission.
Upper Oakwood is a 6-bedded acute service for women who are nearing discharge from the hospital.
We assessed all 33 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The service had previously been inspected in September 2021 and received an overall rating of Good across all domains except Responsive which was rated as Requires Improvement. At the last assessment, the provider was in breach of Regulation 10 of the Health and Social Care Act, Dignity and respect. At this assessment, the service had made improvements and was no longer in breach of Regulation 10. However, we found the service to be in breach of Safe care and treatment (Regulation 12). We now rate the service as Good overall, with Safe rated as Requires Improvement.
The service did not always provide safe care. Care plans were not always being followed in respect of patients’ medicines and were sometimes out of date. Rapid tranquilisation on the wards did not always follow national recommendations for what medicines to use and where an alternative medicine was used this was not done in line with the provider’s own policy. Physical health checks following the use of rapid tranquilisation were not always being completed appropriately to ensure people were being kept safe. Governance systems and audits were not always effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement.
However, environments were clean, well maintained and fit for purpose. Environmental risks, including ligature risks, were assessed, monitored and mitigated. Staff protected people from abuse and improper treatment. Staff completed risk assessments for patients and updated these regularly. Care plans mostly guided safe practice. People were supported to have choice and control and were involved in planning their care and could give feedback. The wards had enough staff to keep patients safe and meet people’s individual needs.