Hertfordshire Partnership University 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 this key question good. At this assessment, the rating has remained as 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 generally involved patients in care planning and risk assessment and sought their feedback on the quality of care provided. Staff informed and involved families and carers appropriately.

This service scored 80 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with patients showed that they were discreet, respectful, and responsive, providing patients with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. During the inspection, we spoke with 21 people, most were happy with the service delivery, care and support they received from staff.

We observed several interactions between staff and people using the service, including initial assessments, review and clinic appointments, duty service contacts for urgent support, and home visits. In all interactions observed, staff were caring, respectful, and supportive. Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. During meetings with patients, we observed staff providing information to people so they could make informed decisions about their treatment.

Staff directed patients to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services including such as integrated health care, wellbeing services and social services.

Staff understood the individual needs of patients, including their personal, cultural, social and religious needs. For example, at clinic appointments, staff listened to people’s views and preferences and tailored their care and treatment around these. During home visits, staff demonstrated they had known patients for a long time and were able to provide detailed information about their history, background and context of each patient’s presentation. This included a good understanding of the views of both patients and their families.

Staff said they could raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory or abusive behaviour or attitudes towards patients without fear of the consequences.

Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about patients. For example, all information about patients was stored on an electronic patient record. This record could only be accessed by entering a personal username and password.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

The service delivered person-centred care, ensuring that care, treatment and support were tailored to individual needs, preferences, strengths, aspirations, cultural backgrounds and protected characteristics. Staff recognised and responded to people as individuals, promoting personalised and inclusive care.

Staff used a Connected Lives approach where strengths-based assessments were completed that focused on the person’s wishes, abilities, relationships, and community connections, rather than solely on their clinical needs. They aimed to promote independence, maintain social inclusion, and support people to remain engaged in their local communities. Staff worked with individuals and their families to identify outcomes that mattered to them and supported access to appropriate services and resources to achieve these outcomes.

Reasonable adjustments were made to meet the needs of disabled people, and all service locations were accessible to individuals with reduced mobility and wheelchair users. Where people were unable to attend appointments, staff visited patients at home or arranged appointments in alternative suitable settings. To ensure access to the service, the majority of patients were visited at home by staff.

Patients were provided with accessible information about their treatment, local support services, their rights, and how to provide feedback or raise concerns. Information was readily available within waiting areas across service locations.

Staff demonstrated an understanding of people’s religious, cultural and spiritual needs, ensuring these were considered and reflected within care planning and delivery, which was supported by patient feedback.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Overall, patients reported having choice and control over their care and treatment, feeling that their wishes were acknowledged. For example, 1 patient shared that when they asked for appointment times later in the morning the service adjusted the schedule to better meet their needs.

People using the service were routinely informed of their right to independent advocacy through information displayed within services and discussions with staff. Staff supported people to access advocacy. Independent advocacy providers also supported inpatient services, and quarterly reports were used to provide oversight of advocacy activity and themes across services.

The trust provided a dedicated Carer and Wellbeing Support Worker within older people's mental health services to support carers of people with functional mental health needs. The role included completing Care Act carer assessments, developing emergency plans, identifying unmet needs, providing emotional and practical support, and signposting carers to community services. Ongoing contact was provided where required to promote carers' wellbeing and help prevent breakdown of caring arrangements.

In some parts of the trust, dedicated support groups had also been developed for carers of older people with functional mental health needs. The trust recognised gaps in local provision and worked with partner organisations to establish regular peer support groups. Feedback from carers indicated the groups addressed an unmet need by providing a safe space to share experiences, reduce isolation and access information and support.

The Trust provided a range of accessible, person-centred and recovery-focused groups and support networks for older people and their carers across community mental health memory services. Therapeutic, educational and peer support interventions, including memory groups, mindfulness programmes, dementia-specific support networks and carer groups, with the aim of promoting wellbeing, social inclusion, and to enable people to maintain and develop their independence, confidence and control over their lives.

The trust had introduced a Joint Service User and Carer Council and held quarterly Experts by Experience forums, providing opportunities for service users and carers to share their views, influence service development and contribute to quality improvement and co-production initiatives across the Trust.

We scored the service as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

We observed staff actively listening to patients and responding to their needs in a timely, compassionate and person-centred manner. Staff demonstrated the skills and flexibility required to adapt their approach to individual circumstances, helping to reduce distress and promote comfort and reassurance.

Each team operated a daily duty system during office hours, ensuring that a designated member of staff was available to respond promptly to requests for support and advice. Outside of these hours, patients, carers and families had access to the Trust’s crisis line.

Patients told us that staff were responsive to their individual needs and provided care in locations that were most appropriate for them. This included home visits for people who experienced difficulties attending clinic appointments, such as those with mobility challenges. Video consultations were also available where suitable, improving access to care and offering greater flexibility for patients.

There were examples of staff recognition in the Trusts monthly inspire awards responding to service users’ immediate physical health needs and going above and beyond the requirements of their role.

Patients with frailty needs, physical health needs as well as mental health needs were referred to the mental health integrated care team where appropriate access to support was provided relevant to people’s needs.

We scored the service as 4. The evidence showed an exceptional standard. The service always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and was exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care.

The majority of staff we spoke with said they felt respected, supported and valued. Staff felt positive and proud about working with older people and their team.

The Clinical Matron facilitated regular nurses’ professional development meetings for the older people’s community teams. Topics included staff responsibilities, escalation, use of performance indicators, training and sharing good practice. In 2026 a County-wide nurses forums for older adults was set up, across all the specialist older peoples teams.

The Trust had a comprehensive Professional Nurse Associate (PNA) offer for nursing staff, delivering a programme of training and restorative supervision as well as offering individual support and reflective supervisions for staff.

Staff in older adult community teams accessed psychology-facilitated reflective practice sessions embedded in routine work, providing protected time to reflect on clinical experiences in a safe, non-judgemental environment. The sessions supported reflection on complex cases and incidents and shared learning and contributed to ongoing improvements in the safety and quality of care.

The Trust issued a weekly round-up sharing updates across the organisation, including positive practice, quality improvements, staff recognition and compliments, as well as news, events and wellbeing information. It also provided guidance on staying well at work and signposted useful resources for staff.

The Crisis Function team held starbursting events, these events included topics such as medicines management, risk assessment, suicide prevention and initial assessments. Starbursting events are a recognised tool where participants engage in structured brainstorming sessions to explore and understand problems or decisions.

In April, the Occupational Therapy team working across the Community Mental Health Services for Older People met for a team-building and education session. The session focused on personal and collective strengths, activities of daily living support, recovery-orientated occupational therapy assessment and interventions, and the expectations of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

In May 2026 the Crisis Function Team came together for a development day focused on shared learning and strengthening their core skills. The sessions focused on key clinical situations, including lithium toxicity, engagement, and sepsis.

The Trust recognised the exceptional contributions of staff through its staff awards. The awards acknowledged work that went above and beyond normal expectations and demonstrated a positive impact on patient care and support. The Frailty Nurse Consultant was recognised for their work in frailty, which contributed to significant improvements in reducing falls risk among older people. The Northwest Older People’s Team was also recognised for its work in dementia care, including its partnership with the charity Say it with a Smile to provide dementia education and support to carers and families.