Archived: Access Centre

Updated 13 June 2017

Beacon UK was established in 2011 and is a specialist mental health care company working in partnership with the NHS. They coordinate mental health services to deliver effective integrated care. Beacon UK is responsible for managed care within Forward Thinking Birmingham.

Beacon UK works in local communities within Birmingham to bring together social, mental, and physical health services, specifically targeting the needs of people with mental health problems, including for example:

• People with severe and enduring mental health problems
• Children, adolescents and young people
• People with personality disorders
• Learning disability
• Older adults

Beacon UK manages five areas under the Access Centre location, which are:

• Access Centre
• Utilisation Management
• Intensive Case Management
• Business Intelligence
• Service Directory

During this inspection, we looked at services provided by Beacon UK as part of a partnership service called Forward Thinking Birmingham. This included the Access Centre, Intensive Case Management and Utilisation Management services and Business Intelligence. Staff working in the Access Centre do not see patients on the premises. At the time of inspection the Utilisation Management Team and the Intensive Case Management had merged into one team having previously been working individually. Staff in the Utilisation Management team were responsible for coordinating patient care. They ensured that patients in treatment were being seen by the correct service for their presentation. They facilitated support for services to move the patient into the lowest level of care the patient required. The Utilisation Management Team did not have patient contact and mainly had contact with services and professionals. The Intensive Case Management team were responsible for working with the 100 most complex patients in order to assess they were in the correct and most appropriate part of treatment. Intensive Case Management team had patient contact and were sometimes responsible for creating care plans with patients. Staff would see patient on wards, in the community at community venues or at patient’s home.

Forward Thinking Birmingham is an integrated community and inpatient mental health service for 0-25 year olds. It has been in place since April 2016. The service comprises five core partners; Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Beacon UK, The Children's Society and The Priory Group.

The services provided by the partners are:

• Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust – clinical care and support for patients aged 0-18
• Worcester Health and Care NHS Trust– clinical care and support for patients aged 18-25 and early intervention services for 16-35 year olds
• Beacon UK – management of Forward Thinking Birmingham’s Access Centre
• The Children's Society – Forward Thinking Birmingham’s city centre drop-in service
• The Priory Group – inpatient beds for 18-25 year olds

There was a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

Beacon UK had not been inspected by the Care Quality Commission before. 

Updated 13 June 2017

We rated Access Centre as good because:

• There was always a qualified member of staff on each shift. The service had low use of bank and agency staff. All staff had completed an induction and mandatory training.
• Staff were supervised and had received an annual appraisal. Staff had the opportunity to shadow peers before commencing their role and had access to specialist training.
• Staff assessed risk and referred patients through clear pathways for care. Patients received appropriate referrals as a result. Staff followed correct procedures for safeguarding children and adults. There were good links with safeguarding leads.
• Staff learnt from incidents through feedback cascaded down from Beacon UK or Forward Thinking Birmingham. Information was shared both internally and externally through clear escalation and governance processes.
• Staff told us they enjoyed their roles and worked within a supportive team. We saw this throughout our inspection. Staff were knowledgeable and gave good advice.
• Patient records were stored securely and staff maintained confidentiality. If something went wrong, staff followed duty of candour and informed patients.
• The service was easily accessible to the public and professionals. There were clear care pathways in place.
• Patients and carers told us staff were kind and helpful. We observed professional and courteous interactions between staff and patients. Staff checked patients and carers understood what had been discussed.
• The service had a clear criteria. During busy periods all staff were able to answer calls so callers were not kept waiting.
• The service had not received any complaints. Patients knew how to complain if they needed to and all patients accessing the service were told how to make a complaint.
• There were good governance structures in place. The service had good processes in place to address all aspects of the service and staff followed those processes. Staff were happy in their roles and morale was high. Staff had the opportunity for development in their roles and progression within the company.

Updated 13 June 2017