The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the trust’s specialist perinatal mental health service, as outstanding following an inspection in August.
The perinatal service at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust consists of one inpatient ward at Chorley Hospital, and three specialist perinatal community mental health teams at Lancaster, Leyland and Blackburn. The ward has eight beds for women experiencing mental health problems during the perinatal period (from 32 weeks into their pregnancy and up to one year after giving birth). The community service supports women up to two years after giving birth.
This was CQC’s first inspection of the service. It has been rated as outstanding for being responsive, caring and well-led, and rated good for being safe and effective.
Gemma Berry, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-west, said:
“At this facility, we found a service providing exemplary care with staff going above and beyond to ensure women and their babies were cared for exceptionally well.
“People and their relatives gave overwhelmingly positive feedback about the service with one person saying they don’t know how they’d have gotten through the last year without the wonderful staff, and someone else saying staff made them feel at home and provided an amazing service.
“We saw staff were discreet, respectful and kind in all their interactions with people, giving emotional support whenever needed. Recent family and friends feedback was 99% positive.
“Women on special observations were given privacy when partners visited and women who were breastfeeding were given privacy and support to do this in a safe and calm environment. In the community, we saw staff had a genuine understanding and respect for cultural differences in the way new babies were welcomed into a family.
“It was also great to see new mothers were given support to work on their own mental health as well as engaging with their baby, and staff were on hand to support with bonding and any practical issues.
“Leaders and staff at this service should be very proud of the findings of this report. It’s clear the service was committed to treating women as individuals and ensuring they receive exemplary care and support during their pregnancy and afterwards. Other services should look to this report to see if there’s anything to learn from it.”
Inspectors found:
- Leaders embedded, maintained and continuously improved a culture of openness and collaboration.
- Staff involved all the necessary healthcare and social care services to ensure people had continuity of safe care, both within the service and post discharge.
- The trust involved people in planning their care and making sure they understood their options.
- Staff had a good understanding of the duty of candour, requiring trusts to be honest and transparent. They gave people and their families an apology and explanation when things didn’t go as planned.
- Staff were highly motivated and consistently felt well-supported by leaders.
- The trust ensured people had good access to physical healthcare, including access to specialists when needed.
- Leaders and staff had effective working relationships with teams outside the organisation. For example, the local safeguarding team, midwives, health visitors and GPs.
- There were a wide range of activities taking place on the inpatient ward, including baby massage and story time, as well as groups for mothers to develop self-confidence and parenting skills.