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 well-being.
GMMH’s Capital, Estate and Facilities Directorate has been focussed on driving sustainable improvements across the board.
NHS England have recently published the national Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) results where service users and staff undertake physical assessments. In the period 2022-23, the Trust scored below the national average across 5 of the 6 core domains (or 7 out 8 individual categories), which provided the platform for change and improvement. In 2023-24 PLACE results significantly improved, and most recently in 2024-25 the results demonstrate even greater steps forward, with the Trust scoring above the national average across 5 of the 6 core domains (or 7 out of 8 individual categories), and notably only 0.04% below the remaining domain.
Associate Director of GMMH’s Capital, Estates and Facilities, Marc Reed, said that building the foundations to strengthen the input, monitoring, reporting and oversight have been central to these improvements.
Marc said: “It is pleasing to share the excellent progress made across all areas in the recently publicised national PLACE scores which reflect the hard work and dedication of the various teams involved, with the support of service users and carers who have also invested their time towards our improvement journey.
"This work hasn’t happened by chance, and the introduction of our environmental monitoring team has been influential in us developing and embedding new and improved standards of quality.
"This has resulted in benefits to the services we offer, the environments care is provided from, and ultimately the patient experience of our service users."
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 well-being 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 well-being.
The data shows an increase in satisfaction rates 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 well-being: Up 9.25% from 89.14% to 98.39%
- Ward food (food tasting): Up 26.54% from 72.1% to 98.64%.
