Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

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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 service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question outstanding. At this assessment the rating has remained Outstanding

This meant people were truly respected and valued as individuals; and empowered as partners in their care in an exceptional service. Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness. They respected patients’ privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of patients and supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff involved patients in care planning and risk assessment and actively sought their feedback on the quality of care provided. Staff informed and involved families and carers appropriately.

This service scored 90 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The evidence showed a good standard. The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Most staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with patients showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing patients with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. Most staff we observed being positive and patient and reassuring. We observed staff interacting with young people in a respectful, kind, patient, and understanding manner. They responded promptly and appropriately when young people requested support. However, four of the six patients we spoke with told us the bank staff appeared uncaring and did not always react in a kindly manner.

The national Friends and Family Test (FFT) was used to capture feedback from parents and carers as well as service users. Carers and young people provided positive feedback about the ward and the staff team on the unit, saying staff were brilliant and the care was outstanding, staff were approachable, they listened and they were lovely. During the reporting period September 2024 – October 2025 a total of 25 parents and carers provided feedback about their experience whilst their child/young person was on Hope unit. There were 20 responses that rated their overall experience as very good and 5 rated as good.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff directed patients to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. Patients said staff treated them well and behaved appropriately towards them. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff understood the individual needs of patients, including their personal, cultural, social and religious needs. Staff said they could raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory or abusive behaviour or attitudes towards patients without fear of the consequences. Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about patients.

Stakeholders described staff as caring and person‑centred, noting that they responded quickly when adjustments were needed. They experienced staff as friendly and welcoming.

The evidence showed an exceptional standard. The service treated people as individuals and was exceptional in how they made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. The service took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

All individual patient needs were assessed on admission and care plans individually reflected the care being provided by staff. Some examples of individual care plans that had been coproduced to meet individual needs were how to support a young person when eating, drinking and when pacing and being overwhelmed. Communication care plans and medication care plans had also been produced for specific young people. As well as meal support care plans directing staff on what to do and what not to do.

The service made adjustments for disabled patients for example, by ensuring disabled people’s access to premises and by meeting patients’ specific communication needs. Some patients used whiteboards or note pads to communicate and had involved parents and carers in ways of communicating with the young people. Young people’s communication needs were met to enable them to engage in their care and treatment.

Hope unit was on the first floor with the education unit being on the ground floor. There was lift access and an assisted disabled bathroom was accessible when needed which patients only used after risk assessment and under supervision owing to there being several ligature risk points in it. It was kept locked when not in use.

Staff ensured that patients could obtain information on treatments, local services, patients’ rights, how to complain and so on. There was lots of information displayed on information boards on the unit. Young people had access to interpreters, advocacy, and internal and external services to support physical health needs and dietary requirements.

The unit made a request to their Lead Provider Collaborative to support with making the environment more neurodiverse for young people with autism. As a result, Neurodiverse Connection was commissioned to work with the CAMHS inpatient service. The report recommended changes to the environment and the aim of the work was to improve the overall sensory and physical environment at the Hope unit. The unit has a short, medium and long-term changes plan in place and have implemented some of the recommendations. Some of the actions taken included turning off artificial lights in the day, staff to keep their keys in a pouch to reduce noise, taking down any out of date posters, or posters that were not within a noticeboard, in each communal area, making sure one wall is left blank, offering all young people ear defenders and ear plugs to reduce high frequency noise. A staff photo board was in place.

Sensory profiles had been completed for young people that needed them, and reasonable adjustments were made to support their wellbeing and recovery. Where a patient had reduced capacity to attend to the usual activities of daily living, support plans had been developed to allow staff to understand how the patient was functioning presently and how they could support them. The plan included reasonable adjustments staff could make to support in activities of daily living such as eating and drinking.

The information provided was in a form accessible to the particular patient group for example, in easy-read form and young person friendly. The unit involved young people in the coproduction of information available on the unit.

Staff made information leaflets available in languages spoken by patients when required. Managers ensured that staff and patients had easy access to interpreters and/or signers when needed.

Patients had a choice of food to meet the dietary requirements of religious and ethnic groups and took account of allergies and intolerances. We observed staff supporting young people at lunch time and it was clear that staff were aware of the young person’s specific needs and challenges.

Staff ensured that patients had access to appropriate spiritual support.

The unit had adjusted the visiting times to the unit to make visiting times more flexible. This allowed young people and their carers/relatives to keep in touch.

The evidence showed a good standard. The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Young people were supported to have choice and control over their care and treatment and to make decisions about their care treatment where it was safe to do so and the young person had capacity. They were involved in their ward meetings if they wanted to attend.

There were information boards on the ward which signposted young people to helplines, advocacy services, therapies, local services in the area, complaints information and ward-based activities and timetables.

The community meetings collated what patients had said at the meetings and this was turned into a monthly poster (you said we did). Some examples were the young people wanted more cooling mats/large ice packs, Hamma beads, spaghetti bolognaise ingredients, a new toaster, and an air fryer. The unit facilitated these requests.

There was a participation lead, and their role was to ensure that young people, parents, and carers were actively involved in shaping the decisions that impact care and experience within the hospital.

The family therapy team completed a monthly newsletter that shared the ideas which had come from parents. Parents as part of their named nurse weekly contact and weekly consultant contact could contribute to a weekly ward round document. Parents had a slot to attend these meetings and were involved in discussions about care and treatment plans.

The evidence showed an exceptional standard. The service 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.

The trust has a moving forward group and has contributed to staff induction. This is a young persons and parent/carer council, who meet and shape service delivery through lived experience. The group has contributed to getting a 360 virtual tour of the ward on the website, deciding what is/is not included in the young people welcome leaflet provided on admission. As well as discussions around the use of force CAMHS leaflet, and the addition of information onto the Hope unit website so young people can look things up on their phones independently if they are not comfortable about asking staff.

A member of the family therapy team had produced a monthly newsletter for parents and carers. This provided updates about the ward and links to documents, templates and self-help information about the Triangle of Care groups within the trust. Templates had been produced for parents to help them plan for their relative’s ward rounds. Triangle of Care awareness training was also offered to carers and family members.

Greater Manchester children and young people provider collaborative, which Hope unit is part of hold a monthly online call to seek peer support from other family members going through similar circumstances. As well as a place for education on a range of topics to help parents, carers feel more able and confident to support their family member.

Previously on the Hope unit young people were not allowed to bring their own bedding from home due to fire regulations. However, this was something that young people identified as a supportive measure. In consultation with the reducing restrictive practice lead, infection prevention and control team and the fire safety team, a decision was made that young people’s own bedding could be used if certain criteria were met and that young people consented to having their bedding frequently changed and washed.

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific risk issues, such as falls, incidents of self-harm, neglect and care planned for these accordingly. Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, patients.

Staff used de-escalation techniques to reduce the need for physical interventions when patients’ behaviours became heightened. All staff had personal alarms that were used to respond to any immediate needs or incidents of the young people on the unit.

The evidence showed an exceptional standard. The service 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 felt respected, supported and valued. Staff felt positive and proud about working for the provider and their team. The staff we interviewed spoke positively about the service, leaders, and managers.

Staff had access to support for their own physical and emotional health needs through an occupational health service.

The CAMHS staff had recently completed a going home survey for one week every 6 weeks. This asks 5 questions for staff to complete at the end of the day Monday-Friday. Asking the questions, I am feeling positive about my day in work today, I feel I had the resources and skills to give my best to the people I saw today, I feel my wellbeing was supported by my team today, I feel able to leave my working day behind me today and will be able to switch off, I felt valued by somebody at work today for example by a colleague, child, young person, parent, carer, other professionals, manager. The results were shared at the bi-monthly well-being champions meeting and shared with the care hub senior leadership team, and the service specific leadership teams for dissemination and action. 

Well-being initiatives, led by the nominated well-being champions supported themes found in the survey such as team connectedness tasks (personal profiles, compliment boards) and seasonal well-being (Spring into action – walking lunch, deskercise) had been actioned.

Staff had access to an online staff suggestion box; this was monitored by the head of quality and was implemented recently. Suggestions were included in Hope unit’s weekly staff newsletters and QR codes were on staff notice boards to also access the staff suggestion box.

The Hope unit staff were supported by clinical supervision, which was enhanced if it was felt this is required. This could be around specific case discussions, improvements to the ward environment or specific issues that the team were currently managing. This could be 1:1 and as a group. Clinical supervision could be accessed after incidents, and staff were also able to access support from the Critical Incident and Trauma Service, within the Greater Manchester resilience hub. Staff had access to individual and group support from this service. This included an offer of responsive psychological support post incident.

Staff could also access 24-hour support, through their employee assistance programme and the trusts staff wellbeing service, who run several groups (e.g. wellbeing, menopause, bereavement) and could provide 6-8 sessions of individual therapy. Stress risk assessments, wellbeing action plans and wellness recovery action plans were in place to help staff think about how to maintain a staff members wellness and recovery at work.

The trust had reported in their staff survey initial findings that last year the trust had continued to see improvements in colleagues recommending the trust as a place to work, with an increase seen in 2023 to 70% compared to 66% in 2022. A further improvement was seen in 2024 with 73% of colleagues agreeing/strongly with this statement. In the last twelve months they had received a total of 44 compliments for Hope unit from patients, carers and other organisations.

The provider recognised staff success within the service – for example, through staff awards. Staff from Hope ward had received an award for Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust people awards. The service produced a quarterly report as part of their contract reviews named “Good News” which featured celebration stories within that timeframe. They highlighted the achievements of staff and the compliments they had received. They also had a “you’ve been mugged!” feature where a staff member is highlighted, sharing their story and recognising the impact they have had on the young people. Staff nominated which staff member should be “mugged” by sending their contributions to the service lead. We saw lots of complements from families and young people thanking staff and the team for the care and support provided during their stay.

Staff appraisals included conversations about career development and how it could be supported and staff had access to a clinical supervision suggestion box. Staff and young people celebrated specific cultural events for example Diwali, they also provided kindness and civility workshop - building a kinder culture for young people and staff designed to help build a more respectful, inclusive and supportive workplace.

The provider had Hope unit staff stars that were paper based star templates that were placed in staff areas, staff could write on these and direct appreciation towards each other. They were added to the box and given directly to the staff member who was the subject of the appreciation.

Staff had access to a care support plan. The plan could be used by any practitioners and completed independently. It was used as a tool to discuss and structure clinical supervision, particularly for preceptorship nurses. Additionally, the plan had been used alongside Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust staff wellbeing resources, to support those returning to work or those struggling to stay in work. It had also been used directly in supporting staff who struggled around workplace stress.