News

An inspection report of inpatient mental health wards in north London has confirmed that patients are looked after by staff who are “kind, caring and approachable”, with strong understanding of current mental health legislation, and a commitment to ensuring they explain patients’ rights to them in ways that are clear and meaningful. 

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report is based on findings from inspection visits carried out in February and March 2025, just three months after North London NHS Foundation Trust was established as a single NHS body.

CQC inspectors spoke with more than 100 of the Trust’s 6500 staff to gather feedback, and used feedback from 56 patients and 32 carers, as well as documentation, policies and performance data to produce a report and give the Trust one-word ratings of sections of the Trust’s services according to five measures covering being safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led. Today’s publication confirms our inpatient services are ‘good’ for being caring and for responsive, and ‘requires improvement’ across the other three dimensions of the CQC’s scorecard.

Inspectors found:

• Most patients described staff as ‘caring, kind and approachable’, and said that staff gave them emotional support and advice when they needed it
• Staff took care to explain to patients their rights under mental health legislation clearly and meaningfully
• The majority of carers said staff were ‘kind and helpful’, and staff supported patients to maintain contact with families and carers
• Good de-escalation skills were used when situations needed them, to keep patients and staff safe and prevent crises
• Patients were able to engage with activities in the community, thanks to staff’s work with external organisations.

Inspectors found also that staff were “passionate” about quality improvement, and showcased projects with genuine positive impact for patients:

• Reducing by 65% the number of times that seclusion needed to be used for patients on Devon Ward a psychiatric intensive care unit in Enfield
• Creating a multi-faith room for use by patients on Shannon Ward at Edgware Community Hospital
• Introducing a ‘perfect day’ structured rhythm of clinical interactions, medication checks, and patient reviews, across four mental health inpatient wards at Chase Farm Hospital

The report includes recommendations for where the Trust must focus improvement efforts, including consistency of undertaking reviews when patients need to be secluded, improving staff take up of key training courses such as life support and preventing and managing violence and aggression.

Other areas for focusing improvement include:

• Improving recruitment to substantive staff roles
• Continuing to work with our partners across the health and care system to reduce waiting times for the care and services we provide in our community
• Being more robust in how we record and document care and treatment plans, including how we involve patients and carers in developing and implementing these plans 

NLFT’s chief nursing and allied health professions officer Manny Gnanaraj said:
“As a newly formed Trust, NLFT has done a great deal of work since its formal establishment in November 2024 to ensure that the very best aspects of our predecessor organisations and component services are used as the benchmark for the quality of care, safety and experience of our patients and their families. Our community deserves nothing less than the very best.

"I’m pleased to see that today’s report confirms we have prioritised important aspects relating to safety of the services we provide, including ensuring staff can identify and report any issues of concern, and that we hold safety huddles, and have robust reviews of all reported incidents. We know we have further to go but I am confident that we are in a good place to move forward further and faster with this vital work. 

“The formal inspections undertaken by CQC and other bodies are an important part of how we measure progress in our continual improvement, and I’m grateful to the inspection team and all the staff, patients, families and carers who made time to share feedback and information about the progress we’re making in our journey towards creating better mental health, better lives and better communities.”

The full report will be available on the CQC website in coming days.