• In its Sexual safety on mental health wards report, Care Quality Commission (CQC) shares its findings and recommendations after reviewing patient safety incidents.
• The report follows engagement with trusts, national bodies, organisations representing people who use services and individuals with direct experience of sexual safety incidents.
• The analysis of nearly 60,000 reports made between April and June 2017 found 1,120 sexual incidents involving patients, staff, visitors and others described in 919 reports – some of which included multiple incidents.

Responding to the CQC's report on sexual safety on mental health wards NHS Providers deputy director of policy and strategy, Miriam Deakin, said:

"The safety and dignity of people who need care, and of the staff who deliver it, is an absolute priority for NHS trusts.

"This report provides valuable insight into how very serious incidents such as these are captured, reported and addressed - as well as the steps trusts can take to prevent them.

We agree that providers should work collaboratively with stakeholders, including patients, the police and safeguarding teams, to ensure that sexual safety incidents are taken seriously and addressed appropriately.

   

"In particular we agree that providers should work collaboratively with stakeholders, including patients, the police and safeguarding teams, to ensure that sexual safety incidents are taken seriously and addressed appropriately, and the process for reporting and learning from sexual incidents should be strengthened.

"The review findings reinforce the importance of ensuring that funding earmarked for mental health gets through to frontline services to enable trusts to manage rising pressures on local services. Within this workforce shortages must be addressed as a matter of the utmost urgency."