The Cygnet Health Care service is a 19-bed hospital providing both high support inpatient rehabilitation (Level 2) and community rehabilitation (Level 1) services for men.
The Triangle of Care is a nationally recognised quality improvement programme developed by carers and delivered by Carers Trust. It promotes safety, recovery and wellbeing by ensuring unpaid carers are included and supported throughout a person’s care journey.
Assessors praised the Cygnet hospital for making “positive strides towards establishing a robust carer-friendly culture”, highlighting strong communication, reflective practice and a whole-team approach to carer involvement.
The report recognised the wide range of accessible engagement methods used by the service to ensure carers feel informed, supported and able to meaningfully participate in care planning. These include regular wellbeing contact, newsletters, therapy resources, carers’ packs, email communication, and bi-monthly carers’ clinics.
A carers’ event held in December 2025 was also highlighted as an important opportunity to celebrate carers, raise awareness of available support and gather valuable feedback to drive further service improvements.
The panel commended the Cygnet hospital for achieving a 100% carer identification rate, ensuring every patient has an identified carer with clearly mapped relationships and consistent involvement in care planning, ward rounds and discharge discussions.
Carers are actively encouraged to contribute to reviews and discharge planning, while telephone updates are provided when families are unable to attend meetings in person. Assessors also praised the service’s compassionate and dedicated Carer Leads and Champions, alongside its commitment to continuous improvement and partnership working with external organisations.
Cygnet Lodge Lewisham was further recognised as a pioneer within Cygnet for its work aligned to the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), becoming the first Cygnet hospital to record carer ethnicity data to better understand and support the needs of diverse carers and promote an anti-racist approach.
Assessors also highlighted the hospital’s strong and culturally diverse workforce as a significant strength, alongside emerging partnership work with local carer support organisations and links with advocacy providers.
The service’s Carer Awareness Training was described as “an area of strength”, with 100% attendance from permanent multidisciplinary staff at training sessions led by a lived-experience carer. Reflective learning sessions following the training demonstrated a psychologically safe culture where staff could openly identify areas for improvement and apply learning to future practice.
The report included positive feedback from carers themselves, with one family member describing staff as “approachable, responsive and attentive” both to the patient and to their own wellbeing as a carer. Saying how they felt “meaningfully involved” in their loved one’s care, they praised the openness of communication, opportunities to participate in ward rounds and discussions, and the flexibility around visiting and home leave arrangements.
Mary Patel, Triangle of Care Programme Lead at Carers Trust, said:
“This Triangle of Care Star Award represents a hugely positive step forward in strengthening partnerships with carers – so family and friends who look after someone are involved in care planning, and have their important role recognised. Congratulations to all the staff and carers at Cygnet Lodge Lewisham for this achievement, and we encourage everyone involved – from frontline staff to senior leads – to continue building on this foundation of good practice.”
The Triangle of Care is recognised by the Care Quality Commission and supports guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on supporting carers. More than 90 providers across the UK are members of the scheme, including NHS Trusts, charities and independent healthcare organisations.
Nena Aitalegbe, Cygnet Hospital Manager at Cygnet Lodge Lewisham, said: “When we embarked on this journey, we knew it was not going to be about ticking boxes or filling out paperwork. It was about fundamentally looking at how we do things and asking ourselves a crucial question: are we truly listening to the people who know the service users best.
“Congratulations to us all on achieving our Triangle of Care accreditation. This is a massive milestone. It means we don’t just talk about involving carers and families, we have actively changed our culture to ensure they are listened to, supported and included as partners in care.
“At Cygnet Lodge Lewisham, we understand that care works best as a three-way partnership.”