A mental health trust has been rated Requires Improvement over all by the Care Quality Commission.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Health Trust was rated Requires Improvement in the two categories of safe and effective.

Improvements have to be made in physical health monitoring and planning, especially in community services for adults with mental health needs.

Steps have been taken with the appointment of new staff to ensure the right amount of resources to support service users’ physical health.

The Trust was rated Good in the categories of caring, responsive and well-led.

Paul Lelliott, Care Quality Commission’s deputy chief inspector (and lead for mental health), said: “Whilst the Trust is still rated as Requires Improvement it is now close to achieving a rating of Good in the future.”

“We carried out a full review of the Trust’s leadership and governance processes and found it was well-led and had made many improvements since our last comprehensive inspection.

“Most staff felt proud to work for the Trust and were committed to ensuring they delivered good care for patients.

“Most staff supported patients with kindness and respect.”

A concern was the age of some of the Trust’s buildings.

Some patients who needed to use seclusion rooms at St Ann’s hospital had to go through public areas.

This meant that privacy and dignity could not always be protected

Mary Sexton, executive director of nursing, quality, and governance, said: “We are delighted that the Care Quality Commission has recognised the amount of progress we’ve made since our last inspection.

“The inspectors told us how caring they found our staff, how staff enjoyed working for the Trust, and that Barnet, Enfield and Haringey itself was well-led.

“We are confident that we will be able to achieve a Good rating on our next major inspection.

“This will be helped considerably when we redevelop St Ann’s Hospital in Haringey which we hope will begin this summer.”