Mersey Care 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

Staff treated people with kindness, compassion and dignity. Staff had a good understanding of people who used the service. People said that staff were professional and empathic. People said they valued their relationships with care co-ordinators and felt able to have honest conversations about their worries. Staff supported people to understand and manage their conditions. Support workers helped people rebuild a sense of identity, self-esteem and confidence. The service ensured that staff were well supported. We found no breaches of regulations in relation to this key question.

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 staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with people who used the service showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing people with help, emotional support, and advice at the time they needed it. People consistently told us that staff were professional, empathic and supportive. They described positive relationships with care co-ordinators, who had a good understanding of their lives and experiences. People valued the reassurance they received from staff, they said this enabled them to share their views and their feelings in an honest manner. People also told us that staff respected their wishes. For example, one person said that staff respected their wish for there to be no involvement with their family.

Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about patients. All patient information was held on electronic records. This information could only be accessed through a personalised username, password and card key.

Staff understood the individual needs of people using the services, including their personal, cultural, social and religious needs. Staff said that building relationships with people using the services was a fundamental part of their work. They explained the importance of ensuring that care plans focused on what was relevant and important to the person. The service was introducing a programme specifically for people aged 18-25 using the service, in order to support the transition from child and adolescent mental health services.

Staff supported people using the service to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff provided psychoeducation sessions to help people understand their condition. This included helping people to recognise signs that they may be becoming unwell and develop strategies to support them at times of stress or anxiety. Staff told us that support workers helped people rebuild a sense of identity, self-esteem and confidence.

Staff directed people to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. For example, staff supported someone using the service to access a men’s mental health support group. Staff referred people to substance misuse services when appropriate.

Staff communicated with people in a way that they understood their care and treatment. For example, staff supported someone who was non-verbal by communicating using pictures.

Managers ensured that staff and people who used the services had easy access to interpreters and signers. Staff used interpreters when they met with people whose first language was not English. Whenever possible, staff used the same interpreter each time they met the person to ensure consistency. Translators were able to write up care plans in peoples’ languages. Staff were also aware of online resources in different languages.

Medicines information was available in different languages and in easy read formats. The trust was exploring the use of web-based solutions to provide personalised medicine support, such as reminders or medicine administration charts in a range of languages.

The service employed seven support workers and two senior peer support workers. At Baird House, the peer support worker facilitated a structured peer support and recovery group. The group was scheduled to run for 10 weeks and provide patients with the opportunity to support each other with concerns and anxieties.Peer support workers were involved in recruitment, the development of peer support networks, the redesign of clinical pathways and quality improvement programmes.

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific risk issues, such as falls or pressure ulcers and care planned for these accordingly. Staff worked closely with district nurses to support people with specific needs. For example, staff worked collaboratively with district nurses to support a person with diabetes. They had completed a specific risk assessment for a person at risk of falls.

Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, patients. Each team held a daily safety huddle. During this meeting, staff discussed any people who may be presenting an increasing level of risk. Staff responded to this by increasing the frequency of visits, reviewing medication, referring to the crisis team or considering an admission to hospital.

Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Managers felt they were trusted to make decisions.

Staff felt positive and proud about working for the provider and their team. All staff spoke very positively about their work, their colleagues, and working for Mersey Care.

Many staff described their team as being very welcoming, inclusive and supportive. They said they valued the holistic ethos of their team.

Staff had access to support for their own physical and emotional health needs. The service offered staff part-time working, or working compressed hours, to help staff manage the balance between their work and caring commitments outside work. If staff needed support after an incident, they were able to speak with a psychologist. Support was also available from the occupational health services and the staff support service. Staff gave examples of when they had been supported by colleagues when they had found an incident to be upsetting.

The service’s staff sickness and absence rates were similar to the average for the provider. Staff sickness rates varied from 3.3% at Moss House to 10.85% at Kirkby Community Mental Health Team, with an average of 6.7%. This is consistent with staff sickness in the NHS in the North-West.

The provider recognised staff success. The trust held an annual awards programme. In 2024, Windsor Community Mental Health Team had been nominated in the ‘Clinical Award – Team’ category. Managers ensured that positive news about staff achievements was shared at multidisciplinary team meetings.

Staff appraisals included conversations about career development and how it could be supported.