Mill Garth

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

We inspected Mill Garth on 7 and 8 July 2026.

Mill Garth is a 19-bed rehabilitation and recovery service for men aged 18 years and over who have complex mental health issues. It comprises of one 17-bed ward and 2 bespoke therapeutic units. These are individualised rehabilitation and recovery services designed for individuals with complex needs.

Mill Garth registered with the Care Quality Commission in March 2016, and the service opened in December 2016. Following the successful merger of two providers in December 2016, Mill Garth forms part of Priory Healthcare although it operates under Partnerships in Care.

Mill Garth is registered to provide 3 regulated activities:

• Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

At our previous inspection in November 2019, the service was rated good overall. We rated the service good for safe, caring, responsive and well led, and requires improvement for effective because patients did not all have a lockable cabinet in their bedrooms and governance systems did not always identify when practice was not in keeping with the provider’s policy.

The reason for this inspection was due to the age of the previous ratings. We reviewed all quality statements across all five key questions at this inspection.

We rated the service as good across all domains and good overall because:

• Staff received lessons learned from the investigation of incidents, complaints and safeguarding concerns, both internal and external to the service. Staff met to discuss lessons learned and were debriefed and received support after incidents.
• Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so.
• Staff we spoke with understood the patient group including individual risks, and how they needed to engage with them.
• Patient bedrooms now contained lockable cabinet to store personal possessions and to enable them progress through the stages of self-medication.
• There was evidence of effective joint working. Managers had regular engagement with stakeholders and external services, inviting them to regular meetings and care programme approach meetings.
• There were robust processes in place for the investigation and management of complaints.
• Staff encouraged patients to live healthy lives, and there were a range of activities available to them.
• There were effective governance systems in place.
• There were quality improvement projects in place which aimed to improve the quality-of-care patients received.

People's experience of this service

Throughout our inspection, we observed staff being kind, compassionate and caring towards patients on the ward. They interacted with patients well and were attentive to their needs.

We spoke with 9 patients. Patients told us staff treated them well and in a caring manner. They felt supported and said they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.

Most patients told us they were enough staff to engage with them and meet their needs, with one patient telling us: “There are loads of staff on here”. However, one patient told us: “Sometimes if the staff are busy, I don’t get the opportunity to meet with them.”

Patients said staff had discussions with them about their medicines including its nature, purpose and side effects. One patient said: “Staff have provided information and advice for me which I do try and follow” [to manage the side effects of the medicine].

Patients felt supported and said they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment. They told us they could provide feedback about their medicines and said they felt listened to. Patients confirmed that staff explained their rights and legal status to them regularly. Patients also confirmed they received regular one to one time with their named nurse.

None of the patients we spoke with told us they had experienced any abuse or unfair treatment on the wards, either from staff or other patients.

Patients told us their family members or carers were involved in their care and treatment where they had given their consent.

Patients felt there were enough activities on the wards. Comments included: “We have a gym next door, we go to the park, to the pictures and to a walking group” and “there are OT (occupational therapy) activities, cooking, smoothie making, and coffee clubs”.

Patients told us they were aware of plans for discharge. They spoke positively about how staff supported them to develop activities of daily living skills as part of their recovery.