We announced our intention to undertake a comprehensive inspection of health care services provided by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust on the 14 September 2018. The trust provided mental health services at HMP Liverpool from the 1 April 2018. We carried out our inspection of services provided by the trust at the prison between 9 and 12 October 2018.

Previously we had concerns about the quality of care provided at the prison by another registered healthcare provider. We decided to inspect healthcare services provided by the trust at the prison to determine if the trust was meeting the legal requirements and regulations under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and that prisoners were receiving safe care and treatment.

We do not currently rate services provided in prisons.

At this inspection we found:

• The provider had effective systems for recording and acting on significant events and incidents. Learning from adverse events and the subsequent dissemination of information to improve safety across the service was embedded.
• The service had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity. This supported routine assessments and enhanced the effectiveness of care provided.
• Most of the time, prisoners were involved in their care and staff treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Prisoners could access care and treatment within an appropriate timescale.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the trust.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Staff should consider involving prisoners in their Care Programme Approach (CPA) review. The criteria and decision making for placing a prisoner on a CPA or a Non-CPA should be clarified.
• Staff from the trust should continue to formally gather feedback from people who use the service, and partner healthcare agencies.
• The trust should work with partners to ensure that all concerns are recorded and to improve the consistency of complaint responses.