- 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 21 May 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 2, 3, 4 September 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.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was launched on 1 October 2024 when Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Solent NHS Trust and some services from Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust merged to form 1 trust. This is our first inspection of the mental health crisis services and health based places of safety since the merger.
The trust has 5 Health Based Places of Safety (HBPoS), also known as a Section 136 suite, at:
- Antelope House
- Elmleigh Hospital
- Parklands Hospital
- Sevenacres (Seagrove Ward)
- St James Hospital (The Orchards).
A Section 136 suite is a facility for people who are detained by the Police under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act.
There are 6 crisis resolution home treatment teams (CRHTT)
- East
- Mid and North Hampshire
- Southampton
- South West
- Isle of Wight (IoW)
- Portsmouth
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust is part of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS). The population of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICS area is over 2 million, with significant health inequalities across different local authorities. There are 4 local authorities, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton. There is a higher proportion of white people across 3 out of the 4 local authority areas. Southampton and Portsmouth are the most deprived local authorities; deprivation is linked with poorer health outcomes. Southampton and Isle of Wight have poorer health index scores, higher suicide rates in males, and higher emergency admissions for intentional self-harm in females than the national average. Suicide rates are significantly higher for males in Isle of Wight and Southampton; female suicide rates are also above national averages in Hampshire, Southampton, and Portsmouth. Emergency hospital admissions for self-harm are significantly higher across all 4 local authorities compared to national figures.
During the inspection we:
- visited all 5 HBPoS and the Isle of Wight CRHTT, Portsmouth CRHTT, East CRHTT, Mid and North CRHTT, South West CRHTT, and Southampton CRHTT,
- spoke with 93 members of staff of various grades and roles through interviews and focus groups,
- spoke with 20 people who used services and 3 relatives and carers of people who used services,
- reviewed 59 care records for people who used services, including medicines records
- observed various meetings and interactions including care being provided,
- spoke with external agencies and organisations,
- and reviewed various documents in relation to the running of the service.
At this inspection we rated the service as Requires Improvement. We rated safe, effective, responsive and well led as Requires Improvement and caring as Good. We found 7 breaches of regulation related to
- governance across the trust, including governance of the HBPoS processes, safeguarding processes, environmental oversight, risk assessment, care records, and audits,
- staffing, compliance and oversight of mandatory training, lone working, appraisals and supervision,
- the use of HBPoS as seclusion rooms,
- access and availability of the HBPoS,
- direct access to fresh air at the Orchards and Elmleigh HBPoS,
- trust response times for urgent and very urgent mental health care and oversight of this data,
- and recording and oversight of medicines.
We asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this inspection.
People's experience of this service
We talked to 20 people who used services, 3 relatives of people who used services and observed care being provided. Everyone we spoke to who used the crisis services said the staff were caring, non-judgmental and compassionate. Most people who used services said they were frequently seen by different staff from the service, but this did not negatively impact on their care, with some saying it supported a more rounded view of the care they received. However, some people did say that repeating their information when seeing other staff could be frustrating. Of the 20 people we spoke to, 4 were located at 3 of the HBPoS at Sevenacres, Antelope House, and Parklands Hospital. They all said the staff treated them well, with one person stating, “they are always kind.” We observed multiple interactions between staff and people using the service and their relatives including assessments, referrals, and crisis support.