Published on: 20 February 2025
Derbyshire’s mental health unit for mothers and babies has been given the seal of approval by independent assessors from the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the third time in a row.
The Beeches, in Derby, has been nationally accredited by the College Centre of Quality Improvement (CCQI) – part of the Royal College of Psychiatrists – for offering high quality care to pregnant women and new mothers who are experiencing acute mental health issues.
Situated on the Royal Derby Hospital site at the Radbourne Unit, the award-winning self-contained specialised inpatient unit was initially accredited in 2021 and then re-accredited in 2023, and has once again met the standards set by the Perinatal Quality Network (PQN), securing its accreditation for another three years.
The CCQI work with mental health services across the UK to assess and improve the quality of care they provide. The Quality Networks use a process of regular peer review and self-review against standards to promote high quality care and to highlight any service developments.
The accreditation process was thorough, requiring an evidence-based submission with a full-day review by the PQN team as well as feedback from patients, staff and referrers.
Patient feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Comments from the assessors included:
- “Overall, the PQN review team were highly complementary of the wealth of groups and interventions available to patients on the ward.”
- “The service clearly works well with a number of other professional groups and services, specifically the relationship between the MBU [mother and baby unit] and the Community Teams was highlighted.”
- “There is strong leadership in place in the staffing team. Staff really appreciated the emphasis on celebrating achievements and felt this was conducive to building positive staff morale.”
After assessment The Beeches achieved 100% against the essential standards, and a further 94% and 81% against the other standards, which is a high score for mother and baby units.
Tumi Banda, Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professionals, Quality and Patient Experience at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, congratulated the team on their re-accreditation. He said: “The Beeches team should be exceptionally proud of their achievement. The team work extremely well with their Perinatal colleagues in the community to provide gold standard care to pregnant and perinatal women suffering with mental health needs in Derby and Derbyshire.
“This national recognition for a third time in a row is a remarkable effort, highlighting the superb skillset of the team who go above and beyond to meet the needs of the community.”
Kerby Walker, Interim Perinatal Clinical Lead at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, thanked her team for all their hard work. She said: “The team and I are thrilled to receive this re-accreditation, which reflects our ongoing commitment to excellence in perinatal mental health care. We will continue to engage with the PQN through peer reviews and self-reviews to maintain and further improve our services in future.
“Our Perinatal mental health community service who work closely alongside the Beeches Mother and Baby Unit accepts professional referrals and self-referrals from new and expectant mothers who are struggling with their mental health. We hope this accreditation will give mums the confidence to contact us, knowing that we will look after them in their hour of need.”
For more information about The Beeches and the Perinatal service, please visit the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust website.
