25 July 2013
During a routine inspection
Staff told us the meals and activities were planned in advance with the patients who lived at the home. We saw each patient had their own activity programme and some of the community activities planned included shopping, going to a local coffee shop, a nature walk and a recent trip to Tynemouth. The activity programme was evaluated by staff and patients which meant patients were consulted about what they would like to do in the future.
The service had a system of audits to check that the building and equipment were safe and clean and staff and patients were kept up to date with what was happening at the service via meetings and supervisions.
As part of this inspection, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) liaised with other statutory bodies to identify an overall view of how the trust was performing and any areas of concern. Contact was made with Healthwatch England, NHS England and Monitor, and their views were taken into account in arriving at the judgements on compliance.
No specific areas of concern affecting this inspection were received from local Healthwatch England, the independent consumer champion for health and social care.
Monitor has the responsibility for ensuring foundation trusts, such as Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, are well led in terms of quality and finance. CQC received confirmation that apart from one recently received concern, Monitor had no other significant concerns regarding the trust. The issues raised by the specific concern were looked at during this inspection and are the subject of ongoing review by CQC.
NHS England has the responsibility for commissioning services and ensuring the provision of high quality services. The Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Area Team had the view that the trust is providing good care but had some questions about specific services and broader issues such as restraint policy. CQC was made aware that these, as well as quality and workforce issues, restraint and specific serious untoward incidents, will be discussed with the trust through a meeting of the Quality Review Group in September 2013. These issues are subject to ongoing monitoring by CQC and have been taken into account in the judgements made in this report.