East London 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

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 caring as outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to good.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness. They respected patients’ privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of patients and supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff involved patients in care planning and risk assessment and actively sought their feedback on the quality of care provided. Staff informed and involved families and carers appropriately.

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.

Quality Statement Score: 3.

The evidence showed a good standard.

The service mostly treated young people and their families with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Work was taking place to ensure staff always used appropriate language when speaking to young people.

The service demonstrated a strong, caring culture, where young people and their families felt valued, respected, and fully supported.

Staff treated young people with compassion, kindness, their interactions were consistently warm, supportive, and person-centered, promoting positive therapeutic relationships. Young people told us staff respected their privacy and dignity.

Staff we spoke with demonstrated a clear understanding of the individual needs of each young person and told us how they support the young people to understand and manage their care, treatment, and condition. We saw evidence in care records young people were actively involved in their care planning and risk assessments, and staff regularly sought their feedback on the quality of care provided in key working sessions.

Families and carers were appropriately informed and involved, ensuring a collaborative approach to care that supported the young person’s wider support network. Four out of 5 parents we spoke to provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about the service. One parent described the service as “excellent,” stating that staff were welcoming, caring, and went above and beyond for their child. Parents told us that staff were empathetic, understanding of family dynamics, and worked in partnership with them. Feedback described the service as better than expected, incredibly positive, supportive, and detailed.

Young people told us that communication with staff was generally positive, and they felt comfortable raising concerns or issues when needed. Staff engagement supported a culture in which young people felt listened to, respected and involved in their care. However, a small number of young people at the Coborn Centre raised concerns about staff attitude and communication. Examples included the use of phrases such as “be good for me”, “seeking attention” and “acting like a baby”, which did not consistently reflect a person-centred or trauma-informed approach. Leaders acknowledged these concerns and demonstrated awareness of the need to improve communication. They told us they were addressing this through a range of forums, including communication training workshops, reflective practice sessions, staff awareness discussions and team away days, with a focus on promoting respectful and trauma-informed interactions with young people. Staff we spoke with confirmed that this work was underway and described opportunities to reflect on practice and improve their communication skills.

Quality Statement Score 3.

The evidence showed a good standard

The service treated young people as individuals, ensuring that care, support, and treatment were tailored to meet their unique needs, preferences, strengths, and aspirations. Staff demonstrated awareness of young people’s cultural backgrounds, abilities, and protected characteristics, and incorporated these into care planning and delivery.

Managers ensured that both staff and young people had accessible communication support, including access to interpreters where needed, ensuring that all young people could engage fully in their care regardless of language or communication barriers.

Overall, the service demonstrated a strong commitment to meaningful involvement of young people in decision making, effective communication, and a clear focus on meeting diverse and individual needs.

Quality Statement Score: 3.

The evidence showed a good standard.

The service promoted young people’s independence, choice, and control over their care, treatment, and wellbeing. Young people were supported to understand their rights and were actively encouraged to participate in decisions about their care.

We saw in care records that where appropriate, young people were offered choices regarding treatment options and medication, supporting shared decision making and increasing engagement in their care.

We saw positive examples of young person involvement and empowerment, particularly through community meetings, which were held twice weekly and led by young people themselves. These meetings followed consistent agendas and were well attended by members of the MDT, demonstrating strong staff engagement.

At the Evergreen unit, we saw clear examples of how young people’s views influenced service development. Through community meetings, young people provided feedback that weekends felt unstructured and less engaging. In response, the service worked collaboratively with young people to develop a more flexible weekend activity timetable, which included afternoon art and craft sessions, garden time, and evening games nights. These changes were implemented, demonstrating that the service listened to and acted on young people’s feedback.

The service actively involved families in care. There was a weekly family engagement meeting, coordinated by a charge nurse, which gave families the opportunity to discuss their child’s progress and contribute to care planning. Feedback from families was positive; one parent told us that the Coborn Centre had been very positive for their child, describing the treatment team, including the care coordinator and family therapist, as excellent and highly supportive.

Quality Statement Score: 3

The evidence showed a good standard.

The service demonstrated a strong commitment to listening to and understanding young people’s needs, views, and wishes, and responding promptly and appropriately. Staff were attentive and responsive, acting in the moment to minimise distress, discomfort, and concern, ensuring young people felt heard and supported. Where young people felt improvements were needed, such as the food provided, steps were being taken to try and accommodate this.

We found that young people’s needs and goals were identified early, beginning at the initial assessment, which was carried out collaboratively. This enabled young people to actively participate in setting their own goals, promoting engagement and ownership of their care.

Care delivery was inclusive of the wider family system, with active involvement of parents and carers. Staff engaged with families and, where appropriate, extended family members, ensuring care reflected the young person’s relational and support networks. The service placed a clear emphasis on improving young people’s experiences within their home, caregiving environments, extended family networks, and educational settings.

Some young people identified areas where the service could improve. Young people told us they would like increased access to leave and more opportunities to use outdoor spaces, particularly at weekends. They also highlighted issues in relation to the quality and choice of food, with requests for greater variety. Leaders were aware of this feedback and were working to address this. They told us that meals were prepared in line with individual dietary requirements, including cultural, vegan and vegetarian needs, and that contingency arrangements were in place to ensure continuity of food provision where required.

Following our inspection, the provider submitted evidence to demonstrate their response to the feedback regarding outdoor access and weekend activities, all wards now deliver structured weekly programmes of therapeutic, educational, recreational, and social activities tailored to young people’s needs. These include occupational therapy groups, creative arts, physical wellbeing sessions, cooking, life-skills development, education, evening activities, and regular access to outdoor spaces.

Young people are also supported to participate in community-based activities such as cinema visits, trampolining, art projects, local walks, and other supervised outings. Additional emphasis has been placed on out-of-hours and weekend provision, with a wider range of activities including arts and crafts, games, movie nights, cooking groups, and individualised opportunities.

A dedicated weekend activity board has been introduced and is updated regularly to improve visibility of planned activities and support choice and participation. Feedback from community meetings indicates that young people value being consulted and appreciate increased opportunities to influence both activity planning and food choices.

In addition, Galaxy and Nova Wards secured £10,000 of non-recurrent Provider Collaborative funding to enhance summer activities, including additional occupational therapy support, bank staff provision, and community trips.

Quality Statement Score: 3.

The evidence showed a good standard.

The service demonstrated a supportive and proactive approach to workforce wellbeing and enablement, ensuring staff were well supported to deliver safe, effective care.

Staff told us they felt well supported and valued by managers, particularly following challenging or work-related incidents. We saw evidence that staff were contacted regularly during periods of absence and were appropriately referred to the Employee Assistance Programme in line with organisational policy. This helped ensure staff felt supported and able to return to work safely.

Staff told us they had regular reflective practice sessions, alongside “breathing space” meetings, which provided opportunities to process experiences, discuss incidents and support one another. These sessions were valued by staff and supported their wellbeing and professional development. In addition, wellbeing initiatives such as designated “wellbeing spaces” were available, promoting rest and recovery during shifts. Some staff also held champion roles, including access to spiritual care, supporting both staff wellbeing and quality improvement initiatives. Staff described the service as a good place to work, although noting it was a fast-paced environment.

Staff at the Coborn Centre told us that morale could fluctuate at times, and some expressed a desire for increased access to psychological support, including more regular input from psychology services. Leaders recognised these pressures and had taken steps to mitigate burnout, including increasing staffing levels, promoting supportive team practices and facilitating team development opportunities such as away days. We were told that the senior management team was undertaking coaching, further strengthening leadership capability and staff support.

Following the inspection, the provider submitted evidence to provide assurance that the ELFT CAMHS Inpatient Service has continued to develop its workforce wellbeing and support offer in response to staff feedbackregardingmorale, psychological support, and the emotional impact of working within an inpatient CAMHS environment. The service has undertaken a training needs analysis against NHS England set competencyframework, andprovided training sessions where gaps were found to ensure staff had the skills and knowledge to support effective care. This training has now been standardised as an ongoing offer. The service is linking with specialist services for eating disorders to understand models of staff support as staffindicatedthat they needed further support in this area. The service intends to look at best practice principles, implement and evaluate effectiveness ofadditionalsupport in this area.