BROCKFIELD HOUSE HOSPITAL RANKED FOURTH NATIONALLY IN ANNUAL PEER REVIEW BY ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHAITRISTS

South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (SEPT) medium and low secure services at Brockfield House, Wickford, have been ranked fourth nationally out of the medium secure mental health hospitals surveyed nationally in an annual peer review by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health aims to facilitate quality improvement and change in forensic mental health settings through a supportive peer-review network.

The network adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to quality improvement sharing best practice, and listening to and being led by frontline staff and service users. The network serves to identify areas for improvement through a culture of openness and enquiry rather than inspection or blame. The model is one of engagement rather than inspection. 

Brockfield House completed a self-review in which they rated their service against the criteria and service users were invited to participate in a telephone conference as part of the self-review stage.

The peer review team visited the unit on 28 and 29 January this year. The visiting team spent two days discussing services with senior managers, front-line staff and service users. Information was collected through interviews containing a combination of open and closed questions. The visit was an opportunity for the peer review team to validate the units’ self-assessment.

Specific areas reviewed included Safety and Security, Clinical and Cost Effectiveness, Governance, Patient Focus, Accessible and Responsive Care, Care Environment and Amenities and Public Health. Brockfield House Medium Secure services were 100% effective in areas concerning Procedural Security, Serious and Untoward Incidents, Safeguarding Children and Visiting Policy, Clinical and Cost Effectiveness, Governance, Accessible and Responsive Care and Public Health out of a total of 11 criteria areas and low secure 100% in 15 out for 16 criteria areas assessed.

The peer-review team were highly impressed with the provision of Physical Healthcare within Brockfield House. Service users spoke highly of their access to health promotion provided by the unit, with particular praise given to the “Health Idol” initiative to improve wellbeing. This was commended by the peer-review team.

In relation to the environment, the peer-review team were equally impressed with the indoor and outdoor facilities at the service. The team noted a calm and relaxing environment on all of the wards they visited during the tour of the unit. The team also commended the flats in Aurora for being pleasant and spacious.

The team were also impressed with how well Relational Security is embedded at the service the efforts made by the unit to adopt the new recovery plan “My Shared Pathway”. Service users reported that their input into their care plans have improved significantly since the start of ‘My Shared Pathway’. The enthusiasm and motivation of the staff at the service was commended by both the service users and the visiting peer-review team.

Report Editor Ilham Sebah said “Inevitably this review focuses more on criteria that were not met of partially met than the many areas of achievement highlighted. Furthermore some of the criteria represent ideal practice and it is highly unlikely that any unit would meet them all. Staff should not be disheartened when criteria are not met but view this as a pointer to further service development. It is also notable that there have been no serious untoward incidents from Brockfield House since the last peer review”.  

SEPT Chief Executive Dr Patrick Geoghegan OBE, said: “This top five ranking nationally is wonderful news and clearly demonstrates the ongoing commitment and dedication of SEPT staff to provide a safe and secure environment for patient care which is rated amongst the best in the country and I congratulate all the hard working staff at Brockfield House”.

SEPT will use the results of reviews to develop action plans to achieve year on year improvement and will also share results with key groups locally, including health and local authorities, those making referrals to their services and local user and carer groups.

ENDS