Anna Freud Centre

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

This means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment of this service, we rated this key question Good.

This is the first rating of the service at this current location. The key question has remained Good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Parents told us that staff were very friendly, kind, welcoming, and warm, describing the team as “absolutely amazing” and “very good.” They said staff provided independent support and helped their children develop strategies to manage difficult situations. One parent told us the service was “amazing,” saying, “The life of our daughter is really changing.” This meant families experienced highly personalised, compassionate care that had a significant and positive impact on children and young people’s wellbeing, demonstrating features of an outstanding service.

Staff followed policy to maintain the confidentiality of the patient’s care and treatment. They explained confidentiality clearly to young people and how information would be shared with parents or carers when appropriate. Parents told us they were confident in how staff handled the information they shared, and the email correspondence they reviewed also reflected this approach. All six parents and carers we spoke with said they were highly satisfied with the service.

Staff supported young people to understand and manage their own care, treatment, or condition. Young people were able to talk through their management plans, strategies, and safety plans with staff. Staff used easy-read information, including age-appropriate language and materials, to help young people understand their treatment. We found documented evidence of both parent and child involvement in family therapy sessions, where parents were seen separately as well as together. Parents were comprehensively involved in therapy sessions and were offered courses to help them develop strategies to support and protect their child at home. Information about treatment options was shared with parents, including explanations of the different therapeutic approaches available, such as mentalisation and family-based therapies, which ensure that all family members have access to therapy individually, where appropriate.
Staff signposted young people to other services and supported them to access these when needed.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff provided a range of care and treatment suitable for the young people using the service. They supported young people to understand and manage their own care, treatment or condition, using easy-read information and adapting their communication methods to suit each young person’s age, cognitive ability and preferred learning style. For example, young people were provided with age-appropriate materials such as visual tools, simplified text, play-based resources and drawing activities for younger children. Staff had the skills, or access to colleagues with the skills, to communicate in ways that best supported each child or young person. Children and young people also had flexibility in how they accessed appointments, including in-person, online or telephone sessions. Staff provided culturally sensitive materials, ensured interpreters were available when needed, and tailored interventions to reflect each young person’s strengths, interests and goals. Staff also took account of protected characteristics, for example, supporting neurodiverse young people with sensory-friendly spaces.
Anna Freud’s clinical services had integrated the Multicultural Orientation (MCO) framework into their therapeutic practice to support culturally responsive care. The framework helps staff consider and address cultural factors that may influence the therapeutic process. For example, staff told us about a young person whose cultural background and identity influenced their understanding of mental health and their engagement in therapy. With the young person’s consent, the clinician applied a culturally informed approach by involving family members where appropriate and adjusting the structure of sessions to ensure the young person felt understood, respected and fully able to participate in treatment.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff made sure young people could access information about their treatment, local services, their rights and how to complain, and provided this in formats appropriate to their age and needs. Parents told us they were given welcome packs containing key information about the service.
The service offered easy-read versions of reports for young people who required them and used a range of communication approaches to support understanding. We saw several examples of care records where staff used their skills to communicate effectively with young people of all ages, ensuring they were fully involved in decisions about their care. Staff explained treatments clearly to young people and their families, and copies of consent forms were kept in each person’s file.
We also saw an example where staff described how they adapted their approach for a young person who preferred visual supports, using diagrams and step-by-step illustrations to explain how therapy would work and what to expect. This helped the young person feel more confident, informed and able to participate fully in planning their care.

The provider was exceptional in how they listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.
Children and young people’s needs, views and wishes were identified from the first meeting, when the initial assessment was carried out collaboratively so that young people could set their goals. Service delivery is inclusive of the entire family system, engaging parents/carers alongside children and young people. The overarching objective is to enhance the child’s relational experiences within their immediate caregiving environment, extended family networks, and educational settings.
Treatment goals are determined following a comprehensive assessment process and are aligned with the identified needs and aspirations of the family. The service aims to support families in addressing the impact of developmental trauma and to equip them with sustainable strategies and psychological tools to manage future challenges effectively.
Six of the six parents and carers we spoke to told us that staff always asked for their views about the treatment their child received and invited suggestions for improvement. Parents and carers said they felt comfortable raising any issues and described feeling heard and seen. They told us that staff listened well, valued their opinions, and created an environment where they could speak openly and with ease. The service met their target times for seeing patients from referral to assessment and assessment to treatment. There was no waiting list to access CAMHS services at Anna Freud Centre.
The service also offered a range of specialist roles and therapeutic interventions, including Child Psychotherapists and practitioners trained in Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT), to ensure comprehensive and appropriate care for children and adolescents. We saw evidence of the breadth of treatments and interventions provided by the service, and parents we spoke with confirmed that children and young people were able to access these. The service had a clear and accessible process that enabled children, young people and their families to provide feedback on the treatment they received, including how to make a complaint.

The provider always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and was exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care.
Staff told us they felt extremely well supported at work, valued by their leaders and part of a team where they had a sense of belonging and pride. They described feeling able to fully contribute to decisions about service delivery and said their caseloads were manageable, with opportunities to discuss complex cases in supervision. Staff reported positive morale and a highly supportive working environment, which they felt had a positive impact on the care they provided. Staff told us they remained well connected through weekly supervision, SCESS social teams and clinical team chat forums. They reported a strong culture of mutual support, with regular reviews of processes to strengthen connections and established peer support groups that promoted staff wellbeing.
They had regular clinical and management supervision, weekly reflective practice sessions, and access to an employee voice forum. Staff told us the service offered a comprehensive mental health and wellbeing plan for the workforce and that they had benefited from support from Occupational Health when needed. They also took part in annual appraisals, team meetings, staff surveys and network meetings, all of which contributed to their development and helped maintain a consistent and high-quality service.