- Independent mental health service
Lombard House
Report from 21 August 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Wards for people with learning disabilities or autism
Our view of the service
Date of on-site assessment 4 November 2025.
We assessed the service due to emerging risk. This service was last inspected in July 2023, and the service was rated as overall good and outstanding for responsive.
We spoke with 9 members of staff, 4 people and 3 family members. We also reviewed the care and treatment plans of 4 patients. This assessment service group was made up of 1 ward and 2 rehabilitation flats. At this assessment we assessed 1 assessment service group; Wards for people with learning disabilities or autism. We assessed 26 quality statements.
We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
The ward a 9-bed unit and had 9 patients on the ward at the time of inspection. The ward was male only.
We rated the service as good.
We found the following breaches of regulation in Regulation 12 Safe Care and Treatment.
2(e) ensuring that the equipment used by the service provider for providing care or treatment to a service user is safe for such use and is used in a safe way.
2(g) the proper and safe management of medicines.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 4 patients who lived at the hospital at the time of inspection.
Patients told us they were happy to talk to staff, felt safe, liked most of the staff, knew them well and could raise concerns/speak to staff with other worries. Patients told us they had regular staff, but 1 patient told us staff sometimes did not have time for them.
All patients we spoke with told us they had lived in the house for several years. One patient told us they lived in the flats, 1 had a confirmed discharge plan and was fully involved in multidisciplinary meetings about their care and discharge.
Patients told us they are involved in deciding what they want to do and where they want to go and talk about their risks at multidisciplinary meetings.
Patients told us they liked their environment; 1 patient who had their own flat told us they loved their flat and another told us they found the hospital a nice, homely environment.
Patients told us staff were good at their jobs.
Patients told us they can go out a lot, they had been to town, a garden centre, the city, and a café.
Patients told us the service was clean, and that all patients helped to keep it clean.
Patients told us they were involved in decisions about their medication, attended ward rounds, and met with the doctor if they were unwell.
We spoke to 3 carers, they told us staff were warm, welcoming, pleasant, kind, and understood their loved one. They found the environment to be clean and welcoming. Two of the carers were involved in their loved ones’ care reviews and attended meetings. One relative, however, told us there had not been any communication with them.
All carers were aware of discharge planning and 2 had been invited to events for carers. Two of the carers told us their loved ones were supported to be healthy, gardening, cycling, and walking.
However,1 carer told us that their loved one was not given wholemeal bread although they were diabetic and another reported that there were no activities for their loved one in the main house, as they did not like board games.
Another carer told us their loved one could not go to church as often as he wished and was not offered many trips out.