Here at Priory, we set out to deliver the highest quality care and support to our service users, and expect all of our colleagues to deliver the highest standards of support, care and treatment. We help our colleagues to do this by facilitating a culture of transparency and openness, promoting evidence-based practice and enabling continuous learning and improvement opportunities.

Our services are effectively regulated by our internal divisional teams, our corporate teams, and our external regulators, commissioners and stakeholders. We also use the feedback from those who use our services, to make improvements.

We measure progress by using reliable data that measures outcomes, effectiveness and service user experience. We ensure a uniform approach across Priory, through our divisional management structure, whereby our divisions each have regional managing directors and a senior management team. Our central services teams are there to support our divisional teams in delivering the safety, quality and compliance agenda.

Safe and effective services

Our absolute priority is to make sure we operate safe and effective services and that all staff understand what is required of them to make that happen. We recognise that a strong safety culture is needed at all levels.

We have a comprehensive suite of policies to ensure staff are working consistently and in accordance with legislation and best practice. The policies are easily accessible and kept up-to-date by a dedicated team of staff. We have in place communication systems and site safety and governance meetings at our homes and hospitals, to ensure appropriate information sharing and management of risk.

At board level, there is a comprehensive review each month by the operational board and its sub-committees of all safety and risk matters. Structured reports in agreed formats are generated so that information and decision-making is consistent.

We have a robust incident reporting culture which enables immediate steps to be taken to manage risk and/or improve patient, staff or environmental safety, where needed.

Our internal compliance teams audit our homes and hospitals against the requirements laid out by our regulators and inspect against exactly the same standards to ensure consistency. Action plans are developed and support provided until improvements are embedded.

We strive to ensure each home and hospital has the correct amount of staff and the right skill and seniority mix for each shift. Our staffing ratios accord with best practice or national guidance (for instance, our CAMHS units are staffed in accordance with Quality Network for Inpatient CAMHS (QNIC) guidelines) and there are clear escalation and support procedures when staff call in sick, to ensure appropriate cover. We have a wide pool of talent to draw on, consisting of permanent staff and bank staff. We only use agency staff where there is no alternative and we only use trusted agency suppliers who we contract with on our own terms and conditions.

We also recognise that staff work best when they have opportunities to progress and develop themselves and we have in place development opportunities for all of our staff, regardless of their role. All staff have access to our Academy platform, which allocates a unique learning and development programme to each individual depending on their role. All staff must attend certain mandatory training modules such as fire safety and emergency first aid at work. Training completion rates are monitored to ensure compliance rates are as high as possible. 

We aspire to having an open and honest culture and encourage our staff to give feedback through consistent supervision structures. We also provide staff with opportunities to raise concerns if they are worried about any matters relating to patient and resident care. For example, we have a whistleblowing helpline and an established network of Freedom To Speak Up Champions and a Freedom To Speak Up Guardian.

We also have a dedicated, independent team that investigates all serious incidents and we aim to circulate serious incident reports to families and statutory agencies in a timely manner. We liaise with our service users and their families as part of investigation processes and encourage them to make comments on our reports. We co-operate fully with all enquiries from the police, safeguarding, commissioners or regulators as appropriate, following a serious incident. Lessons learned from all incidents are shared between staff and sites on a regular basis and improvements monitored and audited.

We ensure that our facilities are well-maintained, fit for purpose and accord with regulatory requirements and expectations. We use an allocated budget to maintain, develop and refurbish our facilities, with the focus on making sure our units are safe. The requirement for gender separation is also taken into account for any refurbishment, or any service change.

Policies and training

In addition to our detailed policies and training, we have developed our own ‘safer room’ specification for all hospitals, with a view to ensuring as many fixtures and fittings as possible conform to an agreed reduced-ligature risk specification (for example, push button taps). 

We have in place operational safety initiatives, some of which stem from regulatory requirements and some of which are generated internally, in line with our commitment to continuous improvement. We are always thinking about and looking for ways to enhance the safety of our service users and staff. For example, at the beginning of each month, we have a ‘Safety First’ initiative, which focuses on a particular aspect of service user care, such as the safe use of hoists and slings.

Because of the hard work and commitment of all our staff teams, as of 31st March 2022, 80% of our CQC-registered healthcare sites were rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, above the NHS England and independent benchmarking figure of 78%. We are proud of this achievement, which is a testament to our unrelenting focus on safety and quality.

Achieving positive outcomes, coupled with the experiences of our service users and staff, are at the heart of everything that we do. This approach is also reflective of the national agenda for quality.

• Complaints
• Health and Safety Policy Organisation and Arrangements
  • Health and Safety Policy Statement
• Responding to Suspected Radicalisation
• Safeguarding Children and Adults

Contact us

For further information, please contact us by email: complaints@priorygroup.com.

Priory's Governance

Our Executive Medical Director, Dr Adrian Cree, speaks to us about Priory's new Clinical, and Suicide Prevention Strategy. He explains the overarching themes and aims of each strategy.

To read our full Clinical Strategy and Suicide Prevention Strategy, please click on the links presented below.

• Clinical Strategy
• Suicide Prevention Strategy

You can also view the following summaries, which provide digestible information from our Clinical Strategy and Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Quality Account 2021-22

As the leading provider of behavioural care in the UK, Priory Healthcare continues to place its primary focus on delivering outstanding service user-centred care for the people we support.

Over the last 12 months, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to significantly impact the health and social care sector. During this difficult period, we’ve remained committed to providing safe, high quality services to our patients and service users.

In 2021, Priory become part of MEDIAN – Germany’s largest provider of rehabilitation, neurology and orthopaedic treatments, with over 120 clinics and 230,000 patients annually. Together, as a leading provider of high quality mental health and rehabilitative services, our focus is on recovery and wellbeing – ensuring everyone we support is able to participate actively and independently in their life as soon as possible.

Some of our quality achievements in 2021–22, as of 31st March 2022, include:

• 90% of acute and addictions service users were satisfied with the overall quality of care
• 95% of eating disorders service users were satisfied with the overall quality of care
• 55 of our sites rated as ‘Good’ or higher and three sites rated as ‘Outstanding’ overall
• 67 inspections across all of the UK
• A reduction in incidents per 1000 bed days by site

Priory Healthcare has worked tirelessly to maintain service delivery in safe environments for service users in its specialised mental health services, demonstrating good management of infection control. We have a collective responsibility to each and every individual Priory cares for, as we strive to provide the best support, outcomes and experience to as many people as we can.

Please click here to read the full Priory Healthcare Quality Account 2021-22

Infection Prevention and Control Annual Report 2021/22

The Infection Prevention and Control Annual Report provides you with the summary of Priory’s activities and actions to ensure we promote safe environment and apply appropriate measures to prevent spread of infection. The report takes into account current legislation from all four UK countries and it can be shared with our commissioners and/or regulatory bodies if required.

Please click here to read the report