PLACE 2024 Outcomes
From left: Marc Reed, GMMH Associate Director of Capital, Estates and Facilities, Flora Azubuike, Quality Auditor, Neil Lake, Quality Auditor, Kate Kruczek, Quality and Environmental Support Manager, Ruth Lyons, Facilities Manager - Quality and Environment and Karen Gates, Quality Auditor
Excellent progress is being made to maintain and improve high standards across facilities and non-clinical care settings run by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH).
That is the verdict of our service users on key criteria of the physical environment within the Trust’s buildings which has informed the findings of an NHS England report.
The criteria includes cleanliness, condition, maintenance and appearance, dementia-friendly and disability-friendly environments, organisational food, overall food score, ward food (food tasting) and dignity, privacy and wellbeing.
GMMH’s Capital, Estate and Facilities Directorate has been focussed on driving improvements across the board.
NHS England published the results of the Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) with a team of service users and staff judging the scores on non-clinical aspects of the Trust environment.
In the period 2022-23, the Trust scored below the national average on most of the set criteria but from 2023-24 and for 2024-25 this has been above the average in nearly all those areas which have been assessed.
Director of GMMH’s Capital, Estates and Finance directorate, Marc Reed, said capital investment had been targeted on improving accommodation to help support the quality of services that we offer to patients.
Ward food has been a special area of focus with cooking from fresh across the board a priority to make fundamental improvements to the quality of service provided for service users.
Particular emphasis has been placed on meals aiding health and wellbeing as well as being tailored to nutritional, cultural and dietary requirements while catering for a variety of choice.
GMMH was rated the best mental health trust across the country for its food with a 98% rating, an increase in eight per cent on the previous year. It also scored among the top five mental health trusts for privacy, dignity and wellbeing.
Marc, said: “It is pleasing to note the excellent progress that has been made across all areas and these scores reflect the hard work and dedication of our teams across the directorate in improving the environment and experience of our service users and carers.
“In terms of food, for example, we wanted to break down the stigma with hospital food, ensure that we kept up with the times and tastes in terms of the different food types and maintain the values we had set ourselves.”
The data shows an increase in all areas from 2022-23 compared to 2024-25:
- Cleanliness: Up 4.01% from 95.15% to 99.16%
- Condition, appearance and maintenance: Up 4.30% from 92.02% to 96.32%
- Dementia-friendly: Up 16.44% from 78.87% to 95.31%
- Disability-friendly: Up 21.96% from 75.23% to 97.19%
- Organisational food: Up 9.43% from 88.60% to 98.03% (2024-25)
- Overall food score: Up 18.93% from 79.42% to 98.35%
- Privacy, dignity and wellbeing: Up 9.25% from 89.14% to 98.39%
- Ward food (food tasting): Up 26.54% from 72.1% to 98.64%
