- SERVICE PROVIDER
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 17 March 2026
Contents
Ratings - Mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety
Our view of the service
We carried out an inspection of the trust’s mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety on 13, 14 and 15 May 2025. The crisis services and health-based places of safety form part of the trust’s mental health services in the community. This inspection was completed as part of CQC's Adult Community Mental Health Programme. We also inspected community-based mental health services for adults of working age as part of the programme. The programme of inspections contributes to CQC's commitment to inspect the standard of care in community mental health services across the country. We undertook a short notice announced, comprehensive inspection of this service, looking at all 5 key questions to assess if services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
Crisis teams are specialist teams of mental health professionals including nurses, doctors, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, and support workers who provide short term support to people experiencing a mental health crisis. They aim to prevent admission to hospital by providing treatment and support to a person in their own home.
Staff provide people who use services with intensive support and treatment in a person's home for those experiencing mental health crises or emergencies.These teams offer a range of therapeutic interventionsincluding assessment, crisis intervention, medication management, therapy, and support for carers.They can help people manage and resolve their crises while minimising disruption to their lives.
A health-based place of safety (HBPoS), also known as a 136 suite,is a designated space within a hospital or other health facility where individuals detained under the Mental Health Act can be safely assessed.This secure environment allows health professionals to determine the best course of action for the individual's mental health needs, whether that's further assessment, treatment, or discharge.
A health-based place of safety is not a ward for long-term admission but a place for initial assessment.People can be detained in a place of safety for up to 24 hours, allowing for the necessary assessment.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust have one crisis resolution and home treatment team and one health-based place of safety for the trust, both are located at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit that covers the Leicestershire area.
We spoke to 22 staff of various grades and roles. We spoke to 9 people who use services. We reviewed 30 care records. Medicines inspectors reviewed a further 7 people’s records. We observed handover and risk management meetings, and shadowed home visits. We reviewed meeting minutes, incidents and policies. We also reviewed information such as performance data and policies supplied to us by the trust, both during and after the inspection site visit.
The team that inspected the mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety comprised 2 CQC inspectors, 1 clinical fellow, 1 inspection manager, 2 Mental Health Act reviewers, 2 CQC members of the medicines team, 2 specialist advisors, and 1 expert by experience (people who have experience of using or caring for someone who uses services).
We last inspected the service in October and November 2017. The report was published in April 2018. We rated this service requires improvement overall at the last inspection. We rated safe, responsive, and well-led as requires improvement and effective and caring as good. At our last inspection we found breaches in regulation relating to the environment of the crisis assessment rooms, staffing vacancies, training compliance, not meeting the targets for referral to assessment and not keeping accurate data for crisis services to support monitoring of services.
At this inspection we rated the service as good. The service had made improvements and was no longer in breach of regulations relating to data and governance and mandatory training of staff. The trust was now meeting targets for referral to assessment. Managers and leaders had access to accurate data to appropriately monitor the effectiveness of services. The crisis assessment rooms were safe and had been co-designed with an expert by experience within the Trust. The service still did not always deploy sufficient staff in all areas, due to high numbers of vacancies in some teams, though the service was taking action to address this. The HBPoS at Bradgate Mental Health Unit did not allow patients direct access to outside space and fresh air, however access could be facilitated when required.
People's experience of this service
We spoke to 6 people who used these services and 3 patients who were admitted to the wards at the Bradgate Unit through the section 136 pathway. People who used services gave positive feedback about their experience of the services. All of the people we spoke to told us staff were kind and supportive. All of the people told us this was a good service and team, and that they had improved as a result of treatment.
We observed 2 home visits by staff from the crisis resolution and home treatment teams and saw that staff provided good care and support to the people who used their services.
However one person told us they would like to see a consultant more regularly, and another person told us they would’ve liked more input into their medication, although they were happy with this now.