Watchdog still has concerns
Taplow: Mental health hospital ‘requires improvement’
A care watchdog still has ‘a number of serious concerns’ about a child and adolescent mental health hospital in Taplow following a recent inspection which has rated it as ‘requires improvement’.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Taplow Manor – formerly known as Huntercombe Hospital Maidenhead – in June and released its findings this morning (Thursday).
The hospital was last inspected in the spring by the CQC, which decided to suspend all ratings and told the provider it must make ‘urgent improvements’.
Concerns about the safety of young people in the hospital’s care were also escalated following the death of a young person at the facility in February.
In its last full inspection in July 2021, Taplow Manor was rated ‘requires improvement’.
The CQC undertook its new unannounced inspection in June to check that improvements had been made, and also to provide an overall rating.
Following this, the hospital has again been rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall, with its specific rating for safety dropping to ‘inadequate’.
Inspectors found that there had been ‘a significant number of incidents’ where staff had demonstrated
‘poor practice’ when completing observations of young people.
This included staff falling asleep and leaving young people unattended to complete other tasks.
The CQC also noted that not all staff had completed necessary training and assessments, while there were also concerns about the cleanliness of wards.
Patients were also said to be ‘bored’ due to the lack of activities at Taplow Manor, the watchdog said.
Meanwhile, feedback from young people stated that some staff were ‘rude, disrespectful and made jokes’ about patients.
However, the CQC did note that some staff treated young people with ‘kindness’ and ‘respected their privacy and dignity’.
It added that they ‘made every attempt to avoid using restraint’ and explained clearly to each young person their rights under the
Mental Health Act.
Deanna Westwood, CQC network director, said: “Although we have seen improvements at Taplow Manor, the developments in some areas have not been made as quickly as we would have wanted.
“We still have a number of serious concerns about some aspects of the safety and quality of care.
“Taplow Manor have not fully met the requirements of the warning notice we issued to them in March, which is why their safety rating has dropped from requires improvement to inadequate.”
Ms Westwood added: “We did find that a number of improvements had been made and staff morale has improved as a result. We also saw that staff treated young people with kindness and respected their privacy and dignity.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service very closely to ensure young people are safe and that improvements are made.
“If the required improvements are not made in a timely manner, we won’t hesitate to take further action to keep young people safe.”
In March last year, Huntercombe Young People Ltd took over the hospital from a company called Huntercombe (No.12) Ltd.
In December, the running of the hospital was announced as the Active Care Group (ACG) following a merger.
A spokeswoman for the ACG said: “We are disappointed with the CQC’s findings following its unannounced visit.
“ACG is committed to providing high quality care to patients, residents and their families, to deliver positive outcomes, progress and recovery.
“The safety and wellbeing of young people in our care is a top priority and we are implementing an action plan to address the concerns raised in the report.
“This includes an extensive refurbishment programme which is already underway and further planning applications are being developed.
“We have also installed surveillance cameras and will be fitting more of these as the programme progresses.”