- SERVICE PROVIDER
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 18 March 2026
Contents
Ratings - Child and adolescent mental health wards
Our view of the service
We inspected the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Serenity Path Hospital on 24 October 2025.
Serenity Path Hospital is an acute adolescent psychiatric service providing inpatient treatment for young people between the ages of 13 to 18 years. The Hospital provides a comprehensive treatment programme for young people experiencing acute mental illness.
We inspected this service as part of our scheduled inspections as we had not inspected this service since February 2022. At that inspection we rated the service overall Good, rating Safe as requires improvement and rated Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led as Good. At that inspection we identified a breach of Regulation 18 Safer Staffing, and told the trust that they must ensure that there are always enough skilled and experienced staff deployed in all units at all times to keep patients safe and meet their needs. At this inspection we found that there were enough experienced staff employed across the service.
Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act Compliance Summary
Staff received training in the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act. Staff could access support when needed about the use of the Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act. Staff explained their rights under the Mental Health Act to the young people admitted to the service.
People's experience of this service
We offered the young people admitted to the service the opportunity to speak to us while we were on site at the hospital. One person decided to speak to us. We spoke with five family members of young people using the service and received mixed feedback.
People told us that their young person mainly felt safe at the hospital, but this could change depending on the actions of other young people admitted to the service. Most people we spoke with told us that the staff were caring but some people told us it depended on the member of staff on duty.
People told us that communication was difficult as staff did not always keep them informed about changes in the young person’s care. People told us that they now needed to approach the service for information as they were no longer invited to ward rounds. Staff did not always contact them following ward rounds and did not send them a written update in a timely manner.