Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Ratings - Wards for older people with mental health problems

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

The Mount is the only inpatient site at Leeds and Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for older people who require hospital admission. There are four wards that provide assessment, treatment and rehabilitation for older people with acute mental health needs including dementia. The service provides care for patients who require admission under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983. It also provides care for patients who may require a deprivation of liberty safeguards authorisation and informal patients who have agreed to receive care and treatment there. The wards are:

• Ward 1, a male ward specialising in dementia care
• Ward 2, a female ward specialising in dementia care
• Ward 3, a male mental health ward
• Ward 4, a female mental health ward

We previously inspected wards for older people with mental health problems in October 2019. At this inspection we rated the services as good overall, safe as requires improvement and effective, caring responsive and well-led as good.

Our inspection took place between 3 and 5 February 2026. We inspected all wards and all five key questions: safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led. The inspection was unannounced (staff did not know we were coming) to enable us to observe routine activity. We gathered information from people using the service, their loved ones, staff and other external stakeholders. We observed the care being provided and reviewed a range of documents relating to the running of the services.

Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as requires improvement in safe and well-led and requires improvement overall because the service did not always ensure that care and treatment was provided in a safe way to patients.

The service was in breach of Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment because:

• Staff were not consistently recording physical observations of patients that required them, this meant the service could not be assured they had taken place.
• Staff had not recorded physical health observations for the duration described in trust policy following administration of an injection prescribed for one patient. This was an issue that had been identified at our previous inspection of the service
• There was no process in place to ensure staff were routinely cleaning medical equipment.
• Staff were not clear where the wards ligature cutters were located or what process they needed to follow if they had to be used.

The service was in breach of Regulation 17 Good governance because:

• Evidence from other key questions indicated that systems and process to assess and monitor the provision of safe care were not always established or effectively operating.
• The trust had failed to take the necessary action to improve practice in relation to the recording physical health observations following administration of injections. This was an issue that had been identified at our previous inspection of the service.

The service was in breach of Regulation 18 Staffing because:

• Staff were not compliant with their mandatory training. Fire level 3 training, smoking cessation training, therapeutic engagement and observation level 2 training and Mental Health Act training were all below 75%.

However:

• 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.
• Staff encouraged patients to live healthy lives, and there were a range of activities available to them.
• There were quality improvement projects in place which aimed to improve the quality-of-care patients received.

• Feedback from patients and carers was very positive, they said that staff were caring, kind and considerate and they worked hard to deliver safe and effective care.

We have asked the trust for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

People's experience of this service

Throughout our assessment, we observed staff being kind, compassionate and caring towards patients on the wards. Staff took the time to support patients and interact with them whilst carrying out their duties, there was a good rapport between staff and patients.

We spoke to 19 patients and 3 family members or carers during our assessment.

Patients said that staff were kind and considerate and they treated them with respect. Patients said, “they are nice and you can chat with any of them”, “the staff are sound” and “they are kind and considerate and bend over backwards to do anything for you”. They said they received support when they needed it, for example if they used the nurse call alarm. A small number of patients said response times at night were sometimes slower.

Patients said the communal areas of the wards and their private spaces were clean and well looked after. Patients said they could do their own laundry and those that could not said it was taken care of for them. Patients said they thought the facilities and activities on the wards were suitable and met their needs. A small number of patients commented they would have liked a room that had an ensuite bathroom, rather than a shared bathroom.

Patients also said that staff supported them to build and maintain daily living skills, so they were able to either move back into their own homes or on to a more permanent and less restrictive service.

The food and menu received mixed comments, some patients said there was a good choice, and the food was nice but other patients said there was a limited choice, and some made comments that the food was not very good or that they did not like it.

Many of the patients commented that they felt better as a result of being on the ward and receiving the care that was available to them.

Patients told us that staff kept their families and carers informed as to where they were and how their treatment was progressing. Some patients said they had asked for their families not to be involved in their care.

Carers and family members that we spoke to were very complimentary about the staff and the work they carried out. They said staff worked very hard to ensure they delivered the best care possible, they said they were kept updated and informed about the treatment of the patient.

Carers and family members said they were made to feel welcome when they visited the wards and they could always find space to enable them to spend time there. Carers and families told us that the parking at the location of the hospital was problematic for them.