A damning report has found children and young people came to harm at a mental health ward.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has lowered the rating for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) ward at Chalkhill, from good to requires improvement following an inspection in June.

The inspection was triggered after the CQC received “information of concern” regarding the safety and wellbeing of young patients at the 16-bed inpatient unit at the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, including high levels of incidents leading to harm, staff training and competence, low staffing numbers, ineffective observations of young people and poor leadership and support.

“The ward was not always safe, clean or well-maintained,” the report said.

“Staff were not always able to keep young people safe from avoidable harm. There were high levels of repeated incidents which caused harm and potential harm to young people where injury was sustained.

“There had been incidents where young people had managed to gain access to areas on the ward that they should not have been able to access, and incidents of self-harm with ligatures."

Before the inspection the trust, along with the commissioners of the service, had identified some safety concerns and an action plan had been in place to address them. However, the action plan had not been fully implemented and some of these areas remained a concern during this inspection, the CQC said.

The overall rating for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust remains good.

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Following the inspection, the CQC issued a warning notice to focus the trust’s attention on making “rapid and widespread improvements regarding good governance”.

The CQC will closely monitor the service during this time and will inspect again to assess if improvements have been made.  

Neil Cox, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said: “When we inspected Chalkhill we found a decline in the quality of leadership at the service which was having an impact on the level of care being provided to the young people using this service.

“It was incredibly concerning some young people had come to harm, and others had been put at risk, because leaders had poor oversight, and didn’t always have good enough systems in place to keep them safe.

“Leaders didn’t always manage risks well, and they didn’t learn from incidents when things went wrong, to stop them from happening again.

“The trust didn’t do everything they could to ensure they were being open and transparent, and young people told us they didn’t always feel safe or supported to raise concerns.

“We also saw it was practice that all the internal ward doors to the lounge, quiet room, garden space and bedrooms should be locked which infringed people’s human rights.

“However, we have also seen more recent positive changes to the management of the service. They know where they need to improve and we’ll return to check on their progress.” 

Dr Jane Padmore, chief executive officer, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said she was “very disappointed” by the report’s findings.

“As a team, we are determined to do better,” she said.

“We took immediate steps to act upon the CQC's feedback and I'm confident we are making progress. This includes strengthening security and safety, our reporting and management processes and staff training.

“I want to assure the children, young people and families who need our services that we are committed to providing high-quality care and treatment."