- SERVICE PROVIDER
Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Report from 6 March 2026 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Forensic inpatient or secure wards
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 18, 19 and 20 November 2025
We carried out an unannounced assessment of the forensic inpatient or secure wards at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust due to concerns around some serious incidents within the service in the previous 12 months and due to the age of the ratings.
During our assessment, we visited all of the trust’s forensic inpatient or secure wards which were all based at Guild Lodge in Preston. We visited 14 wards in total. We reviewed all quality statements across all 5 key questions.
The trust’s forensic inpatient or secure wards had last been inspected in January 2018 where it was rated good overall and in all key questions with no regulatory breaches identified.
At this inspection we rated the service as good.
Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act Compliance Summary
Staff received mandatory training in the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act. The average compliance rate for this training across the 14 wards was 99%. Staff could also access additional training in relation to the Mental Capacity Act.
Staff understood their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Health Act Code of Practice and discharged these well.
People's experience of this service
We spoke to 43 patients. Patients generally felt safe and supported by staff. Patients described being involved in their care and treatment.
Some patients raised concerns about leave being cancelled and felt that, when leave had been cancelled, it was not always re-booked. These patients felt that staffing levels and availability, along with limited resources in respect of unit vehicles, contributed to their leave being cancelled or delayed.
We observed some positive and caring interactions between staff and patients. On some wards we saw that patients were confident in speaking and raising issues with ward managers. Ward managers took the time to listen to and interact with patients.
Whilst on the wards, we observed limited activities taking place for patients. We also reviewed community meeting minutes for some of the wards which recorded that patients had given feedback about limited activities taking place on the wards.