St Andrews Healthcare Northampton

Updated 14 January 2025

St Andrews Healthcare is an independent organisation that provides mental health care across 3 sites in England. We visited the Northampton site to check on the quality of care provided. We carried out an on site assessment of 2 wards within the learning disability and autism division. We visited Hawkins ward which is a 15 bedded ward that provides care for males with a learning disability in a medium secure setting. We also visited Sycamore ward which is a 10 bedded ward that provides care for females with a learning disability in a low secure setting. We carried out an onsite assessment on 22 and 23 April 2024 and asked for, and reviewed data related to the assessment. We had received concerns around the safety of patients, specifically around staffing and observations.

Updated 16 April 2024

St Andrews Healthcare is an independent organisation that provides mental health care across 3 sites in England. We visited the Northampton site to check on the quality of care provided. We carried out an on site assessment of 2 wards within the learning disability and autism division. We visited Hawkins ward which is a 15 bedded ward that provides care for males with a learning disability in a medium secure setting. We also visited Sycamore ward which is a 10 bedded ward that provides care for females with a learning disability in a low secure setting. We carried out an onsite assessment on 22 and 23 April 2024 and asked for, and reviewed data related to the assessment. We had received concerns around the safety of patients, specifically around staffing and observations. We issued the provider with a warning notice following our on-site visit for regulation 18: Safe and effective staffing. We found there were not sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent and skilled staff to meet the needs of people using the service. Staff did not receive appropriate support, training or supervision to enable them to carry out the duties they are able to perform. We issued the provider with 2 action plan requests. Firstly in relation to regulation 12: Safe care and treatment due to there being blanket restrictions in place regarding vape times. We issued another action plan request for regulation 17: Good governance as governance processes did not always operate effectively.

Updated 16 September 2016

• Bayley ward is a medium secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 10 children and adolescent males with learning disabilities / autistic spectrum disorder.

• Heygate ward is a medium secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 10 children and adolescent males with learning disabilities / autistic spectrum disorder.

• Fenwick ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 10 children and adolescents females with neuro-disability / autistic spectrum disorder.

• Richmond Watson ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 12 children and adolescent males with complex mental health needs.

• Church ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 10 children and adolescent males with neuro-disability / autistic spectrum disorder.

• Boardman ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 11 children and adolescent females with complex mental health needs.

• Heritage ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to 12 children and adolescent females with complex mental health needs.

• John Clare ward is a low secure inpatient ward that can accommodate up to nine children and adolescent females with complex mental health needs.

Updated 6 March 2023

Prior to this inspection we received 2 safeguarding concerns, 2 whistleblowing accounts and 1 injury notification. The safeguarding concerns were in relation to staff lack of knowledge to carry out tube feeding for one patient, staff allegedly not having sufficient information about a patient when handing over to an ambulance crew. One whistleblowing concern was in relation to a concern about low staffing levels affecting patient care and a second about staff knowledge of a patient when providing a handover to an ambulance crew in an emergency. The injury notification was regarding a delay to a patient receiving an x-ray at the local hospital. In order to review the circumstances around all concerns we reviewed staffing numbers, how staff were trained to provide safe care, and we reviewed the safeguarding practices. We also reviewed how staff documented and knew about how to manage patient risk.

We rated this core service based on our findings. Our rating for this service went down. We rated it as requires improvement.

• We were not assured that Allitsen ward was compliant with all mandatory training requirements. Specifically, basic life support and safety intervention training (previously MAPPA). Data submitted by the provider was contradicted by that given to us by the nurse manager on the day of inspection.
• Leadership on Allitsen was not always visible. We heard how leadership changes in senior staff on the ward had de-stabilised the ward, and some governance processes such as monitoring mandatory training were not always used effectively.
• Managers had not ensured that all shifts had the correct number of qualified nurses for the duration of the shift. Although the ward was staffed with the right numbers of staff to keep patients safe. The start of some shifts did not always meet the planned numbers. Though gaps were filled during the shift with bank staff which brought staffing levels up to safe numbers.
• Communication processes between the ward staff and the physical healthcare team were not always followed when making referrals for physical healthcare following incidents.

However:

• Staff managed incidents safely. Staffing numbers did not have an impact on the ability to manage incidents. All staff we spoke with on Allitsen ward knew how to report incidents and record them in the electronic system. We reviewed 4 serious incident notifications, which confirmed this judgement. Lessons learned from incidents were shared within teams in order to prevent future occurrence of the same incident.
• Staff managed safeguarding incidents well. We reviewed 2 safeguarding concerns related to patients’ physical healthcare and one whistle blowing report relating to short staffing. We saw staff had reported, recorded, escalated and investigated all incidents in line with provider policy. We saw evidence of the providers investigation reports, response letters and a duty of candour letter. All staff we spoke with understood what constituted a safeguarding concern.
• Staff managed patients’ physical healthcare well.

Updated 11 January 2024

Updated 16 September 2016

• Thornton ward is a locked rehabilitation unit for women.

• Ferguson ward is a locked rehabilitation unit for men.

• Spring Hill House is a locked facility rehabilitation unit for Women offering 23 beds.

Updated 7 August 2017

O’Connell North ward

O’Connell South ward

Compton ward

Updated 16 September 2016

• Sherwood ward is the psychiatric intensive care unit.