National recognition for early intervention in psychosis teams

The Trust’s early intervention in psychosis teams have been named as some of the best performing in the country.

The National Clinical Audit of Psychosis (NCAP) is an audit programme that measures the quality of care that NHS mental health trusts provide to people with psychosis. The Trust has five EIP teams, spanning Barnsley, Wakefield, Calderdale, and North and South Kirklees.

This year the target was for 70% of EIP teams in England to achieve ‘Performing well’ or better. All five of our teams achieved this, with two of our teams achieving ‘Top performing’.

Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) teams provide rapid access to specialist care for people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. Services are measured against criteria relating to the care and treatment they provide, so that the quality of care can be improved.

There has been a national quality standard for EIP since 2014 and there is a requirement for all EIP teams to meet this standard by 2024.

Stephen McGowan, who led on the process with service managers from the Trust, said: “Congratulations and well done to all our EIP teams who provide valuable support to people at incredibly challenging times. This is a particularly remarkable achievement for two of our teams to be rated at the highest possible quality rating, placing them in the top 15% of the whole country.”