Troubled children’s service taken out of special measures

An independent children’s and adolescents’ mental health service has been taken out of special measures after cutting beds by two-thirds.

The Care Quality Commission has rated St Andrew’s Healthcare’s CAMHS unit in Northamptonshire “requires improvement” but removed it from special measures. Among improvements noticed were a major change in the service’s leadership and staff raising concerns openly and honestly.

The unit was rated “inadequate” and served with a section 31 notice following inspections in June and December last year. 

After its December inspection, the charity reduced the number of beds within its CAMHS offering from 90 to 30. Around the same time, St Andrew’s Healthcare chief executive Katie Fisher also revealed plans to shrink its services by half to address the serious quality issues.

Speaking to HSJ, St Andrew’s Healthcare chief executive, Kate Fisher, who was appointed in 2018, said: “this isn’t just words, we are absolutely walking the walk and seeing through the strategy we set ourselves.”

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Source: HSJ, 18 December 2020