We spoke with four people who used the service. We found that before people received any care or treatment, they were asked for their consent and the provider acted in accordance with their wishes.

People were generally very positive about their care and treatment. One patient explained, “I am being looked after well.” People told us they worked with staff to achieve their recovery goals. One person told us, “I like to go to the sports centre play table tennis and footy. For the time being the staff come with me. As I become for comfortable and confident the staff will back off. It is all part of my treatment”

We found people who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse because the provider had taken reasonable steps to identify the possibility of abuse and prevent abuse from happening.

The provider had taken steps to provide care in an environment that was suitably designed and adequately maintained.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs.

Patients who used the service, their representatives and staff were asked for their views about their care and treatment and they were acted on.

As part of this inspection, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) liaised with other statutory bodies to identify an overall view of how the trust was performing and any areas of concern. Contact was made with Healthwatch England, NHS England and Monitor, and their views were taken into account in arriving at the judgements on compliance.

No specific areas of concern affecting this inspection were received from local Healthwatch England, the independent consumer champion for health and social care.

Monitor has the responsibility for ensuring foundation trusts, such as Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, are well led in terms of quality and finance. CQC received confirmation that apart from one recently received concern, Monitor had no other significant concerns regarding the trust. The issues raised by the specific concern were looked at during this inspection and are the subject of ongoing review by CQC.

NHS England has the responsibility for commissioning services and ensuring the provision of high quality services. The Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Area Team had the view that the trust is providing good care but had some questions about specific services and broader issues such as restraint policy. CQC was made aware that these, as well as quality and workforce issues, restraint and specific serious untoward incidents, will be discussed with the trust through a meeting of the Quality Review Group in September 2013. These issues are subject to ongoing monitoring by CQC and have been taken into account in the judgements made in this report.

We visited this location on a weekday when all the people who lived at the unit were out doing a range of activities. We were able to talk to one person when they returned who was keen to show us the nice bedroom they had. The person told us that they could do lots of activities and that they liked living there.