Archived: Capital Court

We visited Evergreen House in Exeter where CAMHS services in Eastern Devon are based. We spoke with 17 children, young people and families who used the community based services to hear about their experiences of CAMHS. We also looked at six young people's care records. We met with 20 members of staff which included nurses, family therapists, primary mental health workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and business staff. We also spoke with the local manager, the head of CAMHS and the registered manager. We attended various meetings where people's care needs, risks and service developments were discussed. We reviewed a range of information provided to us by Virgin Care. A specialist advisor accompanied us on our visit and an expert by experience carried out telephone interviews with young people and parents.

Most people spoke very highly about the CAMHS service. One parent said, 'I would recommend them to others'. A young person said, 'I'd think it's pretty good, it's very organised, staff know what they are doing and are very experienced'. Another parent said, 'Staff were extremely professional and approachable'. However, several people told us about difficulties accessing CAMHS and about impact of waiting times within the service. People said they were very happy with CAMHS once they had accessed it. A parent said, 'We are so glad to be in the system, staff are really friendly, you can talk to them'.

The service showed continuous development against a trend of increasing numbers of referrals and changing needs of the population, which was being discussed with commissioners of these services. We were told about changes and improvements made to work more efficiently and to reduce waiting times. We were told about plans for additional funding by NHS commissioners to support further improvements.

This report relates to the Capital Court location. You can access copies of the other two location reports via the CQC website.