CQC report finds good care in mental health services

Although the media will no doubt focus on the negatives, a new CQC report on the state of care in mental health services has actually uncovered a lot of good news.

A study of mental health services conducted between 2014 and 2017 has found that 68% of core services provided by the NHS are good and 6% outstanding, while the ratio is 72% and 4% respectively for independent services. Among those services for which special praise were delivered were community services for those with learning disabilities or autism. Even providers labelled as requiring improvement have made “real progress”.

Unfortunately, the report also highlights a “substantial minority” of services where improvement is needed, and cited a number of familiar areas of concern, including staffing shortages, locked rehabilitation wards, poor quality clinical information systems, and the variation in the use of physical restraint and restrictive practices.

The latter is certainly a hot topic in the sector today, and the reason behind Skills for Care’s recent push on positive behaviour support. Clearly, services needed to embed the latest guidance in their training programmes more deeply to achieve change.

The full report and data is available on the CQC website.