Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Are service caring? This means we looked for evidence that the service involved patients and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question as good. At this assessment the rating has remained unchanged. We rated this key question as good because patients were supported and treated with kindness and compassion. Staff were respectful and polite when interacting with patients. They provided patients, carers and family members with help, emotional support, and advice when they needed it. The service made adjustments for patients who may require additional physical needs or support. Patients felt staff cared for and supported them to live as they wanted to. However, the trust reported that the service was performing poorly against NHS England’s mental health access and waiting time standards for urgent and community mental health services, which requires that patients with urgent needs should receive a face-to-face assessment within 4 hours.

This service scored 70 (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 treated patients with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

We spoke with 34 patients, and 10 carers across the crisis service and the health-based places of safety. The feedback we received was mainly positive. Patients and their carers said that staff were professional, pleasant, and caring.

Staff were discreet, respectful, and polite when interacting with patients who used the service and their relatives. They provided patients and their carers and family members with help, emotional support, and advice when they needed it. One patient reported that the Crisis Outreach Acute Support Team (COAST) had been brilliant and helped them when they were going through a mental health crisis. They said staff saw them daily, and the personal and emotional support they received helped them tremendously. One carer told us that staff did not only provide care and support to the patient, but they also ensured the needs of the whole family were met too.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Patients told us that staff took time to discuss their care with them, and when they had question or concerns, staff were happy to provide support or assistance. They understood the individual needs of patients, including their personal, cultural and social and religious needs.

Staff directed patients to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. Patients and carers told us they were signposted to other services such as early help, health visitors and specialist services.

Most patients and their carers told us they knew how to raise concerns to make a complaint but have not needed to because staff had been brilliant and behaved appropriately towards them.

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.

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

The service made adjustments for patients who required additional physical needs or support. For example, the Health-Based Places of Safety and Havens were located on the ground floor of the hospital for ease of access. There were also step free access for wheelchair users.

The trust provided support for patients, carers, and staff with additional communication needs. They provided interpretation services, accessibility guidelines, and dedicated support for neurodivergent individuals.

The trust provided a range of resources for autistic patients and patients with a learning disability such as a Sussex Autism passport and a Learning Disability Response Plan which was developed in partnership with Sussex Police.

Patients at the health-based places of safety and the Havens had a choice of food to meet the dietary requirements of religious and ethnic groups and to account for allergies and intolerances.

Staff ensured that patients had access to appropriate spiritual support.

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

Patients felt staff cared for and supported them to live as they wanted to, and staff supported them to have choice and control over their own care and treatment. Although some patients felt staff could involve them more in discussions about their medicines.

Patients could keep in touch and meet up with those who were important to them, including family, friends and patients who shared their interests, identity and culture.

We scored the service as 2. The evidence showed some shortfalls. The service did not always listen to and understand patient’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not always respond to patient’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

The service was performing poorly against NHS England’s mental health access and waiting time standards for urgent and community mental health services. This standard required that very urgent patients should receive a face-to-face assessment within 4 hours. Between January 2025 and May 2025, the Chichester, North-West Sussex, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings and Worthing crisis teams saw only 23% of patients who required an urgent face to face assessment within 4 hours."

Patients and their carers reported that if was very difficult to through to the crisis teams on the phone. The trust also reported in its most recent Sussex mental health survey that 74% of patients felt accessing mental health support was difficult due to ongoing confusion on where to go, long waiting times and difficulties navigating services. However, the trust reported significant improvement as the number of abandoned calls by the Sussex mental health crisis line had dropped from 4252 in April 2024 to 2374 in May 2025. We saw that the trust was taking steps to improve mental health access for patients across Sussex.

For patients who had an assessment, staff ensured that they dealt with any specific risk issues, such as falls or pressure ulcers and care planned for these accordingly. Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, patients.

Staff told us on first instance; they used de-escalation techniques to reduce the need for physical interventions when patients’ behaviours became heightened.

We scored the quality statement as 3. The evidence showed a good standard. The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff we spoke with told us they felt respected, supported and valued. They felt generally positive and proud about working for the trust and their team.

Staff felt there were opportunities within the trust for career growth and development. Staff appraisals included conversations about career development and how this could be supported. The trust also provided a range of support and development for staff including a preceptorship programme for nurses.

Staff had access to support for their own physical and emotional health needs through an occupational health service. The trust had a wellbeing workshop that focused on mindfulness and resilience. The trust also provided staff counselling via their Employee Assistance programme to help staff deal with both personal and emotional issues as well as their own mental health.

However, the crisis service was reporting above average sickness and absence rates across all the teams between May 2024 and April 2025. Staff told us that the workload had increased in the last 12 months due to increased demand for the services

On the most recent staff survey conducted in 2024, the trust asked staff if they felt they were recognised and rewarded. Just over 50% of the respondents felt they were recognised and rewarded, and feedback for this question was below the trust’s average response and national average response. Just over 50% of staff who participated in the survey felt the service was inclusive. The trust was taking action to address concerns.