Our services have been recognised as 'excellent' by the Care Quality Commission for the past five years. This is the highest ranking an NHS organisation can achieve, and we have been publicly congratulated by the government on our performance as few trusts have achieved this.
Many of our services for children are recognised as being among the best in the country and are often cited as cases of best practice when it comes to working with children and families.
We have achieved this level of service by being a patient-centred organisation. We listen and respond to the needs of our patients.
We understand that it is very important for children to be seen as soon as possible, so we aim to see patients within 11 weeks of referral.
We know that a 'one size fits all' approach does not work, so we offer a tailored approach for individual needs. We ensure we have staff with expertise across the range of disciplines, including:
- psychiatry
- family therapy
- psychology
- psychotherapy (analysis)
- social work
- nursing
- teaching.
The majority of our staff also teach on the postgraduate courses we run, so they keep up to date with the most 'cutting edge' treatments and understandings about mental health conditions. Indeed many of our staff write and publish key works in relation to mental health treatment. Some of the most important ideas in how mental health problems develop and how they can be treated originated in our clinics.
Our staff are trained to understand the impact of culture, class, ethnicity, race, gender, disability and language on mental health functioning, and our staff group comes from a diverse background itself. When necessary we work closely with other agencies so that services are joined up.
We also have an attached adult and young adult service, so that all members of the family can receive appropriate treatment with us. We do not need to refer on to other organisations when people cross significant age boundaries (such as becoming an adult).
