Lea Court

Ratings - Long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

• The inspection took place on 11 December 2025.
• We assessed the service to ensure that improvements had been made since the previous inspection. We also reviewed the recommendations made in the previous inspection for consideration of action by the service.
• Lea Court provides services for male and female patients with mental health needs who require rehabilitation. It is a level 1 rehabilitation service, level 1 or 'Tertiary specialised' rehabilitation services are high cost / low volume services, which provide for patients with highly complex rehabilitation needs following illness or injury. The service is suitable for up to 26 patients and includes 6 patient rooms designed to enhance independent living prior to a return to the community.
• We found no breaches of the regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 on this inspection.
• We found that the service had completed its action plan from the previous inspection and improvements had been made in the well-led key question.
• Staff knew and understood the provider’s vision and values and how they applied to the work of their team. Staff felt respected, supported, and valued. Governance processes operated effectively. Performance and risk were managed well.
• Audits and reports regarding environmental risk assessments, such as Legionella and water temperature checks were carried out and fully reported on and monitored. A full calendar spreadsheet outlining audit responsibilities for each level of staff member at the service was comprehensive and followed by the service.
• The provider’s senior leadership team had successfully communicated the provider’s vision and values to the frontline staff in this service. The provider senior leadership team had a “uMatter Walkabout Briefing Document” that recorded visits by senior management to the service and their findings.
• Information governance systems included confidentiality of patient records. Any paper documents were secured, and a new electronic notes system was being introduced.
• The service gave us access to two recordings of patient independence journeys relating to patients who, until recently, struggled with their mental health and maintaining improvements.

People's experience of this service

During this inspection we spoke with both patients and staff about their experience of the service. We spoke with three patients during the inspection, with other individual patients making positive comments to the inspection team whilst touring the service. Patients said staff were always positive and put their needs first, and the new registered manager had introduced additional systems to increase their opportunities for independence and supported choices on how they achieved their goals toward discharge.

Staff stated the culture of the service had been enhanced by a manager who had a person-centred focus on patients and encouraged staff to continue both their and the staff team's personal development and to reflect on service improvement.