Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS 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 Good. At this assessment the rating has remained Good.

Good: This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

We rated this key question good because:

• Staff treated the young people with dignity and respect.
• Staff set goals with the young people that promoted independence and choice.
• The service was able to meet the diverse needs of the young people who accessed the service.
• Staff responded to changes in the young people’s needs.
• There was a commitment to staff wellbeing.

However:

• Not all young people were offered a choice of treatments.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We observed two therapy sessions and saw that staff were warm, friendly and developed a good rapport with the young people. Staff reviewed the young person’s goals during the session. Young people and families we spoke to told us that staff at the community CAMHS service were kind and caring. However,staff told us there were issues with the room booking system that rooms could be double booked and a therapy session had to change rooms during the session.

Staff were aware of the need to make reasonable adjustments for young people depending on their personal, cultural, social and religious needs. Staff had advised young people and their families when they needed to take extra precautions to remain safe in the local area. For example, there had been an anti-immigration protest near one of the offices, so staff made people aware that it was happening.

Staff would explain the care process to the young people so they understood what treatments were available to them. When we spoke to young people and their carers we had a mixed response, 2 people said they weren’t given a choice of treatment but staff did explain the treatment to them, 2 told us they had started treatment before being on the CAMHS caseload and therefore there was no need to be offered a choice and 4 told us they were not offered a choice from the start.

Staff told us they felt able to raise concerns with their managers and would if they felt the staff were not treating the young people correctly.

The service was able to meet the needs of disabled people. For example, consulting rooms were on the ground floor at all the locations we visited as part of this inspection. Staff gave young people handouts that explained the treatment process. However, staff at the South Gloucestershire team told us that they did not have a set handout for each care pathway and had to put this together for each young person.

Staff worked with young people and their families to set goals that promoted independence and choice. Staff encouraged the young people to complete ‘My Voice’ statements, so they knew what the young people wanted from their treatment. Staff encouraged the young people and their families, where appropriate, to help develop their care plans.

Staff worked with the young people to complete a risk assessment. Staff reviewed risks at the weekly MDT meetings. Whilst young people were waiting to access the service, staff would regularly contact them to see if their needs had changed. Staff could escalate concerns at the MDT meeting, and we observed this during a meeting, and saw that staff responded to a changing risk. Staff also gave the young people, and their families contact details for out of hours services in case they needed support outside of the team hours.

Staff that we spoke to told us that there was a supportive culture within the teams and that they felt supported by their managers. Staff told us that they could express their opinions, and they felt they would be listened to.

Staff told us that the provider had given them 2 hours a month for wellbeing activities. The teams had set up a range of local wellbeing initiatives, including book clubs, quiz nights, netball sessions and yoga. The North Bristol team had developed an outdoor space that staff could use for reflection following complex sessions.

Managers discussed career development and wellbeing in supervisions and staff appraisals.

At the time of the inspection the service sickness and absence rate was 4.5%, which was lower than the NHS average of 4.9%.

The trust has a health and wellbeing strategy in place and employees could access a 24 hour staff support line.