Cygnet Hospital Woking offers a range of mental health services for women as well as a low secure mental health service for men. Services are delivered in a purpose-built therapeutic environment where the focus is on maximising positive outcomes and recovery.
The latest inspection was an unannounced inspection on 31st January 2023. In addition to speaking to staff the CQC inspectors also spoke with ten services users on the hospital’s Picasso Ward.
The inspection focused on two key lines of enquiry and improvements were identified in the ‘Safe’ and ‘Well Led’ domains.
The full report, published on the CQC website, highlights many areas of positive practice, including:
- Service users said felt involved in their care planning and decision making and were able to be supported by their family members in the care planning process.
- Service users said that staff were always available to answer their questions and offer support and that there was always lots of therapeutic activities to take part in if they wanted to.
- The hospital had developed a role for a service user to support the ward as an activity coordinator. They supported their peers with organised activities on the ward and was responsible for chairing the weekly community meeting and ensuring the patient voice was carried through to the governance meetings.
- The philosophy of the service was collaborative and followed a person-centred approach. The leadership team had successfully communicated their vision for the service to frontline staff who spoke enthusiastically about teamwork, both with each other and with service users.
- Levels of restrictive interventions were low and / or reducing and staff participated in the provider’s restrictive interventions reduction programme, which met best practice standards.
- Training compliance rates were consistently above the service’s 85% target. At the time of the inspection the average rate of completion of training was 94% across all areas.
- The management team encouraged compassionate, inclusive and supportive relationships among staff.
- Staff felt able to raise any matter or concern with leaders. They gave examples of suggestions they made to leaders and the positive responses they received.
Carla Roadnight, Hospital Manager, said, “The staff at Cygnet Hospital Woking work incredibly hard every day to make such a positive difference to the lives of the those who we support. I am incredibly proud of the team and I thank them for living to our values and always putting our service users first. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without everyone’s efforts.”