Aspire

Updated 28 July 2022

Aspire is an independent community mental health service based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Its provider is Community Links Ltd. Community Links Ltd delivers both mental health and adult social care services. Aspire works with young people and adults from 14 to 65 years old who have experienced their first episode of psychosis. This Early Intervention in Psychosis service works intensively with its patients for up to three years before they are discharged back into primary or other secondary care services. Staff at Aspire deliver care within the community and in patients’ homes, as well as their office base. The service provides medical and psychosocial interventions. The service has a registered manager. The service has been commissioned to deliver early intervention services as an independent provider and covers the whole of the Leeds region. Aspire works closely with the local trust and stakeholders.

This service is currently registered to carry out the following regulated activity:

Treatment of disorder, disease or injury

In January 2019 we rated the service as good across all five domains and good overall.

What people who use the service say

Patients shared very positive feedback about the service. Patients told us that staff were supportive and respectful. They told us that they usually saw the same workers which was important to them. Patients told us they benefitted from the service and from the variety of groups that were on offer. Carers also told us staff communicated well with them and they found the staff were supportive and the service was beneficial to their loved one.

Updated 28 July 2022

Our rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

The service provided safe care. Clinical premises where patients were seen were safe and clean. Staff were able to give each patient the time they needed. Staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.

Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment and in collaboration with families and carers. They provided a range of treatments that were informed by best-practice guidance and suitable to the needs of the patients. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.

The teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of the patients. Managers ensured that these staff received, supervision and appraisals. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with relevant services outside the organisation.

Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients and families and carers in care decisions.

The service was easy to access. The criteria for referral to the service did not exclude patients who would have benefitted from care.

The service was well led and most governance processes ensured that procedures relating to the work of the service ran smoothly.

However:

Staff were not up to date with all of their mandatory training.

The ligature risk assessment was out of date.

Staff caseloads were higher than advised for an early intervention psychosis service.

Not all care plans had been reviewed within the required timescales set by the service.

Staff found the recording system difficult to navigate and some of the information needed for management purposes was not easy to access and sometimes inaccurate.

Updated 28 July 2022

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

See the summary above for details.