Humber Teaching 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

At our last inspection we rated this key question good. At this inspection the rating has remained good.

Good: Staff treated people who used services with compassion and kindness. They respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of people who used services and supported them to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff involved people 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.

However, the service did not consistently promote the welfare of staff across all teams.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

During observations of care, we saw staff were kind, caring, empathetic and supportive to each person involved. We saw staff taking a positive, proactive and person-centred approach and tailoring care and support to meet people’s specific needs and preferences. We observed a visit where the staff member took account of the person’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and their needs associated with it, in their interaction and in planning care and treatment.

Staff directed people to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. For example, staff supported autistic people to access groups sessions and club meetings at a local voluntary sector agency which supported autistic people.

We saw examples of staff going above and beyond to offer individualised support to people and their families. For example, we observed a member of staff supporting a person and their carer to access the local food bank, when they had struggled to get a parcel and had little food available.

During our inspection we spoke to 24 people who used services and 3 carers. Feedback from people and carers was universally positive about staff attitude and behaviours. People we spoke with told us staff were kind and respectful. They told us staff worked with them to help them understand their condition.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure their care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences, taking account of their strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

People we spoke to during our inspection, told us staff adapted their care and treatment based on their individual preferences and circumstances. For example, 1 person told us how staff had worked with their whole family to address worries and concerns about their diagnosis as it was important to them their family, including their children, were supported.

Staff ensured people’s preferences and needs were accommodated as much as possible. For example, Individual Placement and Support (IPS) workers attended MDT meetings, and we saw in MDT meeting minutes evidence people were supported to find work which matched their individual needs and preferences. IPS is a model of supported employment specifically tailored for people with serious mental illness that helps promote recovery through obtaining jobs that align with someone’s strengths and preferences.

We observed staff exploring the impact of a person’s social situation on their current symptoms and exploring support that could be available in the community to support recovery and independence.

Staff made reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people’s needs were met. For example, by offering flexible appointments in different formats such as virtual or face to face to enable the person to engage in care and treatment.

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

During observations of care, we saw staff took a strengths-based approach and helped people to identify ways they could proactively manage their mental wellbeing to promote independence.

Staff empowered people to make their own choices and decisions about their care and treatment, For example, we observed an appointment where a doctor had an open discussion with a person about the impact of increasing medicines on their wider physical health issues and the impact of their social situation on their symptoms. The person’s choice about medicines was supported alongside other support such as telephone befriending services and social care assessment.

Staff signposted people to the trust Recovery College. A Recovery College offers a wide range of free courses to help people better understand and manage their mental health needs, recover and stay well.

The mental health division Pulse survey between July 2025 and February 2026 showed 36% of people using services said their mental health team gave them help and advice with finding and keeping work. Thirty percent of people said teams gave them help and advice with finding support for the cost of living.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. They responded to these in that moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

During observations we saw staff responding to specific risks and issues raised by people using services in a compassionate way. For example, we saw a doctor and care coordinator working together to respond to someone in distress both through discussions about medicines and social care and wellbeing activities.

Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, people who used services. People we spoke to told us staff supported them to manage risks and worked with them to put safety plans in place.

Staff completed ‘family inclusive care coordination’ training, with compliance at 92% at the time of our inspection. The training aimed to give staff the knowledge, confidence, and skills to engage families as a routine and integral part of their care coordination role. One person told us how staff had worked with their family to support them all including their children and how this has positively reduced the impact of the person’s mental health on their children and family.

Psychosis Service for People in Hull and East Riding (PSYPHER), early intervention in psychosis team had a family therapist who worked alongside care coordinators, social workers or allocated professionals to support people with an emphasis on family interventions and how these could significantly impact a person’s recovery.

The service did not always promote the wellbeing of their staff in every team. Staff were mostly supported and enabled to deliver person-centred care.

Some staff told us they did not always feel respected, supported and valued. Some staff also told us they had not been supported when on, or returning from, long term sickness absence. Some staff told us their work was not always recognised and valued by managers.

Some staff told us they were not always listened to and did not see change as a result of feedback they had given. However, staff in some teams told us managers actively sought their opinions and listened to them. In July 2025 in Beverley CMHT, managers carried out a quality improvement programme to gain insight into staff experiences and expectations as they recognised staff felt under pressure.

However, the trust had a number of processes to support staff. This included support and wellbeing services, occupational health and counselling services. In November and December 2025, a ‘Speak Up for Safety’ campaign was run across CMHTs. Staff could access reflective and restorative sessions led by professional nurse advocates.

Staff received an annual appraisal of their work. In February 2026 compliance with annual appraisal was 100% in all teams except Hull CMHT. In Hull CMHT compliance was 93.7% for clinical staff and 79% for non-clinical and psychology staff. The trust intranet contained guidance for staff on how to ensure appraisals were effective and appraisals included conversations about work performance and career development and how it could be supported. Managers received training in holding effective appraisal conversations.

Staff clearly described processes for working safely on their own in the community. Staff contacted the duty person when going into and leaving visits. If there were any concerns these were escalated to the manager.

The trust had an up-to-date supervision policy which outlined the requirements for managerial, clinical, professional and safeguarding supervision for all staff. Staff received regular supervision. In February 2026, supervision rates were above 90% in all teams and staff we spoke to told us they received managerial and clinical supervision.

Managers told us of plans to introduce a ‘healthy teams’ dashboard with core measures that may indicate staff health and wellbeing being agreed with staff for each team. Managers conducted exit interviews with staff who were leaving the service and used the feedback from these to inform improvements and activities around staff wellbeing.

The service had a number of staff wellbeing champions in roles such as race equality, disability and LGBTQI+.

Staff in the Psychosis Service for People in Hull and East Riding (PSYPHER), early intervention in psychosis team received 6 monthly training on what is a first episode of psychosis which included training on trauma-informed care. They could also access fortnightly reflective practice.