Cygnet Hospital Stevenage

Updated 18 December 2025

Date of on-site assessment, 30 September 2025.

Cygnet Hospital Stevenage is part of the Cygnet Health Care group which offers a range of services for adult individuals with mental health needs and learning disabilities. Cygnet Hospital Stevenage opened in May 2006 and consists of 6 wards, including 2 Acute wards, 2 Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs), a low secure ward and a Medium secure ward.

Tiffany Ward – Female acute ward

Chamberlain Ward – Female PICU

Orchid Ward – Male acute ward

Pattison Ward – Male PICU

Saunders Ward – Male Low Secure

Peplau Ward – Male Medium Secure

This on-site assessment and report is based on review of the Acute and PICU wards.

Cygnet Hospital Stevenage is registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for:

Assessment and medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Treatment for Disease, Disorder, and Injury.

The last inspection of Cygnet Hospital Stevenage, Acute and PICU wards took place in June 2021. This was a focussed inspection looking at Safe and Well-led key questions. At that inspection, the provider received an overall rating of good. Safe was rated as Requires Improvement and Well-led was rated as Good. We found 1 breach of Regulation 15, Premises and equipment regarding cleanliness of the environment. We did not inspect Effective, Caring and Responsive the rating for these remained the same as the previous inspection in January 2020. All three of these key questions were rated as Good.

We carried out this responsive assessment due to receiving information of concern. We assessed 33 quality statements across the Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.

During this assessment we spoke with staff including hospital managers, nurses and healthcare assistants. We inspected the ward environments and clinic rooms at the hospital. We observed staff and patient interactions on these wards. We reviewed patient care records, and patient prescription charts and reviewed minutes of various meetings, policies and procedures, data and documents relevant to the running of the service.

At our last assessment we rated this service as Good overall. At this assessment the rating remains Good.

Updated 24 June 2025

Date of on-site assessment, 30 September 2025.

Cygnet Hospital Stevenage is part of the Cygnet Health Care group which offers a range of services for individuals with mental health needs and learning disabilities. Cygnet Hospital Stevenage opened in May 2006 and consists of 4 wards, including 2 Acute wards for adults of working age and 2 Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs)

Tiffany Ward – Female acute ward
Chamberlain Ward – Female PICU

Orchid Ward – Male acute ward

Pattison Ward – Male PICU

Cygnet Hospital Stevenage is registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for:

Assessment and medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Treatment for Disease, Disorder, and Injury.

The last inspection of Cygnet Hospital Stevenage, Acute and PICU wards took place in June 2021. This was a focussed inspection looking at Safe and Well-led key questions. At that inspection, the provider received an overall rating of good. Safe was rated as Requires Improvement and Well-led was rated as Good. We found 1 breach of Regulation 15, Premises and equipment regarding cleanliness of the environment. We did not inspect Effective, Caring and Responsive the rating for these remained the same as the previous inspection in January 2020. All three of these key questions were rated as Good.

We carried out this responsive assessment due to receiving information of concern. We assessed 33 quality statements across the Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.

During this assessment we spoke with staff including hospital managers, nurses and healthcare assistants. We inspected the ward environments and clinic rooms at the hospital. We observed staff and patient interactions on these wards. We reviewed patient care records, and patient prescription charts and reviewed minutes of various meetings, policies and procedures, data and documents relevant to the running of the service.

At our last assessment we rated this service as Good overall. At this assessment the rating remains good.

Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act Compliance

Mental Health Act

The service admitted patients under the Mental Health Act 1983. Staff received and kept up to date with training on the Mental Health Act and the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. This training was mandatory for staff, and the compliance rate was 100% across all wards.

Staff had access to support and advice on implementing the Mental Health Act and its Code of Practice. The service had clear, accessible, relevant and up-to-date policies and procedures that reflected all relevant legislation and the Mental Health Act Code of Practice.

Staff explained to each patient their rights under the Mental Health Act in a way that they could understand, repeated as necessary and recorded it clearly in the patient’s notes each time. Staff made sure patients could take section 17 leave (permission to leave the hospital) when this was agreed with the responsible clinician.

There was evidence of informed consent being obtained within patient records. We reviewed patients’ medication charts and saw people detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA), had been prescribed and administered medicines in line with MHA consent to treatment authorisations.

Mental Capacity Act

Staff received and kept up to date with training in the Mental Capacity Act. Staff were required to complete mandatory training on the Mental Capacity Act. At the time of inspection, the compliance rate was 100% across all wards.

Staff assessed and recorded capacity to consent clearly each time a patient needed to make an important decision. Staff completed an assessment of each patient’s capacity to consent to admission and treatment on admission and further assessments took place as required.

Updated 11 January 2024

Cygnet Hospital Stevenage is part of the Cygnet Health Care group which offers a range of services for individuals with mental health needs and learning disabilities. Cygnet Hospital Stevenage opened in May 2006 and consists of 6 wards.

We carried out this assessment in February 2024 as we had received information giving us concerns about the safety and quality of the forensic wards. During this assessment we looked at the 3 forensic wards and undertook a site visit on 6 February 2024.

Peplau Ward – Men’s Medium Secure 14 bed ward

Saunders Ward – Men’s Low Secure 15 bed ward

Tiffany Ward – Women’s Low Secure 15 bed ward.

The last comprehensive inspection of Cygnet Hospital Stevenage took place in June 2021. At that inspection, the provider received an overall rating of good. Safe was rated as requires improvement as some of the areas of the hospital were visibly unclean and the hospital had vacancies for support staff. We found improvements in both of these areas at this inspection.

The service provided safe care. The ward environments were safe and clean. The wards had enough staff and ward teams had access to the full range of specialists to meet the needs of patients. Staff minimised the use of restrictive practices and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding. Staff completed thorough risk assessments of wards and individualised risk assessments with patients and updated these regularly and/ or when risk presentation changed. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal, celebrated staff successes and had developed strategies to boost staff wellbeing and reduce instances of racist abuse towards staff and patients. Feedback from patients and carers about the service was overwhelmingly positive. Patients told us they felt safe and that staff were caring and treated them with kindness and respect.