- 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 11 May 2026
Contents
Ratings - Forensic inpatient or secure wards
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 24 to 25 September 2025: We visited four hospital locations as part of this assessment.
Ravenswood House has 5 wards altogether and provides care and treatment for male patients with a mental health disorder in a secure setting. During this assessment we visited four wards: Mary Graham, Lyndhurst, Malcolm Faulk and Ashurst.
Southfield is a specialist mental health inpatient service and provides care and treatment for people with a serious mental illness who are aged 18-65 years. During this assessment we visited Starling Gold, Starling Emerald and Robin Ward.Starling wards is for females and Robin ward is for males
Bluebird House and Austen House are specialist, secure mental health inpatient units that helps young people, both male and female, aged 12-18 years.
Forensic inpatient or secure wards were last inspected in 2021 under the previous provider, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and rated as Requires Improvement overall. During this inspection and under the new CQC framework methodology Bluebird and Austen House were now included and assessed under the whole assessment group of Forensic Inpatient or Secure Wards.
We carried out this unannounced assessment as part of our routine comprehensive assessment process. We assessed a total of 32 quality statements from the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and found areas of good practice. Our overall rating has changed from Requires Improvement to good. The wards had enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to ensure people’s safety and meet their needs in a secure setting. The services had a proactive and positive culture of safety and minimised the use of restrictive practices. Staff assessed risks to patient's health and safety and mitigated those risks. Staff ensured medicines were managed safely. The service provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the patients cared for on a forensic ward. Staff actively sought information and listened to patients. The service valued a diverse workforce and worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality for staff. The trust fostered a positive culture where staff felt that they could speak up. Leaders worked well with their partners across the local system. Concerns about safety were listened to by senior leaders and safety events were investigated and reported thoroughly.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 15 patients and 5 carers during the assessment. Most patients said they felt safe on the ward and there were enough staff. Patients said if they did not feel safe, they would talk to the ward manager or staff. Three patients said they felt staff were approachable and had their best interests at heart. Three patients said they did not feel safe on the wards from other patients and felt that when they had raised this with staff, staff had done something to help them. Two patients said that staff do not always knock on their bedroom doors before entering, especially at nighttime, which sometimes compromised their privacy. Most patients told us they had signed a copy of their care plans, and they had been involved in discussions about their care plans. However, patients were not always provided with an easy-read or accessible version of their care plan to refer to. Patients described staff as mostly respectful and polite, with six patients describing good relationships with staff and naming specific staff members that they had good relationships with and felt that they could trust to support their care. Seven patients told us they were often bored and there was nothing to do at weekends. However, three patients said they had activities they were interested in, and they leave to do their own things. Overall patients felt that staff responded to their concerns and knew who to discuss their complaints and concerns with on the wards. We spoke to 3 carers at an organised activity day and they were mostly positive about their experience of Ravenswood House and felt their loved ones were receiving good care. They commented that it would be better if telephone communication improved as it was sometimes difficult to speak to a person in charge.