Cygnet Nield House

Updated 16 September 2021

Cygnet Nield House is an independent hospital registered to provide care and treatment for up to 30 women with mental health conditions. Patients may be admitted voluntarily or detained under the Mental Health Act. It has two wards:

• Compton ward – 15 bed acute inpatient ward
• Clarion ward – 15 bed inpatient ward for women with a personality disorder with disordered eating. Patients have a personality disorder and use disordered eating as a form of self-harm; they do not have a primary diagnosis of an eating disorder.

All patients are funded by the NHS. At the time of the inspection, all beds on Compton ward were block booked to specific NHS trusts. Patients were referred to Clarion ward by individual clinical commissioning groups from across the country.

Cygnet Nield House registered with the Care Quality Commission in September 2020. It is provided by Cygnet Behavioural Health Limited, which is part of Cygnet Health Care who provide mental health and learning disability services across the country. It is registered to provide the regulated activities: assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983; and treatment of disease disorder or injury.

The service has a manager registered with CQC.

This was the first inspection of Cygnet Nield House and was unannounced.

What people who use the service say

Patients provided us with mixed feedback about their experience of the service.

Patients were generally positive about staff, but did not always feel they had enough input from members of the multidisciplinary team, or that they were involved in the decision making process about their care.

Some patients thought there were enough staff, and others thought there could be more. There were a lot of bank and agency staff, but this had improved and most worked in the hospital regularly.

Patients were generally positive about the environment but thought it was rather crowded on Compton ward, or would be on Clarion ward when full.

Patients knew how to make complaints, and had access to the hospital director and an independent mental health advocate.

Updated 16 September 2021

Cygnet Nield House is an independent hospital that provides care for up to 30 women with mental health conditions.

This was our first inspection of this service. We rated it as requires improvement because:

• The service did not always provide safe care. The risks presented by the ward environment were not always assessed and managed well. For example, not all parts of the ward were easily observable, and it was not always clear if information about risks was shared with temporary staff. The wards did not always have enough nurses and support workers.
• The documentation of care plans and risk assessments was not always recovery-oriented and easily accessible to patients, and all staff.
• The service did not always actively involve patients and families and carers in care decisions.
• The governance processes did not always ensure that ward procedures ran smoothly.

However

• The ward environments were clean. Staff minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff carried out comprehensive assessments of patients and developed care plans in response to these. They provided treatments suitable to the needs of the patients and in line with national guidance about best practice.
• The ward teams included or had access to the range of specialists required to meet the needs of patients on the wards. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. The ward staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Updated 16 September 2021

We rated this core service as requires improvement.

We rated this service as requires improvement because safe and well-led require improvement, but effective, caring and responsive were good.

See overall summary for more information.

Updated 16 September 2021

We rated this core service as requires improvement.

We rated this service as requires improvement because safe and well-led require improvement, but effective, caring and responsive were good.

See overall summary for more information.