New accommodation will be found for children at St Andrew's Hospital to shrink mental health service

St Andrew's Hospital has confirmed new accommodation will be found for 69 patients to reduce the child and adolescence mental health service (CAMHS) in Northampton.

The service, described as overstretched, will be moving out of its purpose-built base, £45 million Fitzroy House, by the autumn in the wake of criticism.

A St Andrew's Healthcare spokesman said: "We will look to work with commissioners to find the patients places in the community if they are ready to be discharged or go to another provider."

The 99 current CAMHS patients will go down to a maximum of 30 and move into another building at the Billing Road hospital, called Smyth House, where the women's ward is.

The women's service and others are being considered to move into Fitzroy House, which opened on Cliftonville Road in January 2017 and has 110 rooms.

The spokesman continued: "Our main building is listed so we are still in the process of considering what can be used in Fitzroy House as we would have to move other services out of that building."

The closure of CAHMS at Fitzroy House follows two scathing inspections from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and concerns raised by the NHS.

A CQC report in June 2019 criticised St Andrew's for severe failings in CAHMS, including sparsely-furnished seclusion rooms with no beds or blankets, 'undignified' treatment of patients and, reportedly, 'exposed sharp metal' in extra care suites.

In October, a father was awarded an undisclosed fee for damages after his 17-year-old daughter Bethany was kept in a seclusion cell at Fitzroy House for more than two years.

While an interim inspection in January this year found improvements were underway at the hospital but criticised its leadership team for being slow to address concerns.

The St Andrew's spokesman said less than one per cent of the charity's 5,000 members of staff have been disciplined for their behaviour when handling patients.

Chief executive Katie Fisher, who joined 18 months ago, is also working hard to change the hospital's culture, the spokesman added.

"Katie gets emails every day about issues to sort and she wants everyone to feel empowered to raise issues, whether you're a cleaner or on the leadership board - her door's always open," she said.

The concerns about the increasing use of restraint and seclusion is largely due to a drive to improve reporting and a lower threshold of recording such incidents, according to St Andrew's.

New channels for staff to raise concerns about potential wrongdoing have been set up, including four 'freedom to speak up guardians' and an external whistleblowing service,

There are now daily, weekly and quarterly opportunities to raise issues with the senior leadership team, the spokesman said.

And a 'zero tolerance' working group chaired by Ms Fisher is developing ideas to eradicate all types of unacceptable behaviour at St Andrew's.

St Andrew's is the UK’s biggest independent charitable provider of mental healthcare and has bases around the country with its headquarters in Northampton.