Published on: 23 July 2026
Working-age adult community mental health services at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have received a positive rating from national inspectors following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
In a report published this week, the CQC awarded the services an overall rating of ‘good’, with inspectors also rating all five key areas of the services as good: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The result represents an improvement on the previous inspection of the services in 2020, when the same services were rated ‘requires improvement’ overall.
It means that all of the mental health, learning disability and children’s health services provided by Derbyshire Healthcare now have an overall CQC rating of either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
This latest inspection outcome recognises the commitment and hard work of colleagues based within community mental health teams at a number of different locations across Derbyshire and Derby and reflects their continued focus on delivering high quality, patient-centred care during a challenging period.
Some positive feedback from the report included:
- The report highlighted positive feedback from most service users and carers, including strong therapeutic relationships, access to support and flexible care that met people’s needs.
- Feedback gathered through Healthwatch highlighted consistent treatment and successful interventions from occupational therapy staff.
- During the inspection, inspectors observed appointments and found staff to be “kind, caring, professional and aware of each person’s treatment plan”.
- The service also received 481 compliments from service users and carers between January 2025 and January 2026.
- Inspectors found that previous concerns around caseload management and the availability of emergency medicines had been addressed.
Tumi Banda, Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professionals, Quality and Patient Experience, said:
"This is a really positive outcome for our working-age adult community mental health teams, and everyone involved should be exceptionally proud. Achieving a ‘good’ rating across all inspection domains demonstrates the commitment of our staff to providing safe, effective and compassionate care for the people who use our services.
"The improvement since the previous inspection reflects how hard colleagues have worked at making improvements, as well as maintaining efforts for putting patients at the heart of everything they do. I would like to say a huge thank you to all staff, service users and carers who contributed to the inspection process and helped showcase the quality of care being delivered.
“The latest inspection outcome means that all services across Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are now rated either good or outstanding by the CQC, which is a significant achievement and reflects the dedication of our colleagues across the Trust.”
Read the full inspection report on the CQC website.
