About this location
Priory Stockton Hall is a long-serving medium secure hospital based in a quiet but well-connected village near the historic city of York. It serves the local Provider Collaborative and multiple National Collaboratives, depending on clinical need, and has had a long-running record of successful patient pathways.
Services at a glance
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Priory Stockton Hall The Village Stockton-on-the-Forest York YO32 9UN
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Services
Our secure services offer comprehensive support to people with complex mental health needs. We model our service provision on the NHS secure service specification for medium and low secure services, ensuring our patients are given the highest quality of care to enable quick and smooth transitions into local services, wherever possible. We are committed to delivering clinically effective, evidence-based treatment programmes for individuals who require secure care, providing both psychological and physical security.
Ward break down
- 12-bedded female ward
- 12-bedded learning disability and autism ward with comorbid mental illness and complex needs and risks
- 8-bedded learning disability and autism ward with comorbid mental illness and complex needs and risks
- 48 beds providing care for patients with mental illness and comorbidities
- 8-bedded ward which allows for a slower pace of rehabilitation
Conditions treated
We are able to support people with:
- Complex mental health needs
- Behaviours that challenge
- Severe and enduring mental health needs
- A learning disability
- Personality disorders
- Autism
- Psychosis
- Sexual offending behaviour
- Substance misuse or forensic addictions
We are able to support people who are detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA).
Treatment approaches
At Stockton Hall, we offer an individualised, person-centred approach to all of our patients.
Our services have produced excellent recovery results for those who stay with us and they are able to progress to low secure or locked rehabilitation if possible. We run a therapeutic programme to help patients to develop coping strategies, increase skills and resilience and enable patients to access the community to maximise their recovery potential.
Our recovery college aims to provide further opportunities for patients to improve their wellbeing through skills development workshops and discussion groups, which we have used to develop various podcasts covering topics such as mental health stigma, autism and mental health awareness, as well as general discussions about sports and music. These podcasts were winners of the 2022 National Service User Awards in the category of 'recovery and the arts'.
Our LD and autism wards have been recently NAS accredited (National Autistic Society). They recognise the excellent, safe, responsive and caring environment and practises that support patients. The care and treatment reviews have also highlighted multiple areas of good practice and this is in recognition of the care and innovative care pathways and reduction in multiple transitions into non-secure services.
Emphasis is always on safety and we instil a responsive, caring and well-led culture that’s supported by a clinical governance meeting framework. This is further supported by safe medicine management and a responsive and vigilant pharmacy system.
Our assessment and treatment options are based on trauma-informed principles and are overseen by a full and diverse multidisciplinary team (MDT).
We offer:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
- Occupational therapy (OT)
- Music therapy
- Mindfulness
- Compassion focused therapy (CFT)
- Schema therapy
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Substance misuse awareness and treatment programme
- Mental health awareness programme
- Personality disorder awareness programme
- Motivation for change programme (chances to change)
- Managing anger programme
Therapy can be delivered in either groups or on an individual basis, and are tailored to a patient's specific needs, for example, for those with learning disability and/or neuro-disability, to ensure that responsivity issues are accounted for. As a specialist service, we offer bespoke interventions to help individuals develop insight into their neuro-diversity and skills to help them navigate the wider community.
Ward based coping skills groups are also offered for those patients who struggle to engage with more formal, structured interventions. As part of our trauma-informed approach, staff wellbeing and resilience is a key priority at Stockton Hall. We recognise the likely impact of our work and seek to help staff develop their psychological understanding of patients through reflective practice and psychological based formulation discussions, to ensure they provide the best quality care to patients. Staff are supported through a robust debriefing process that also enables learning to be made and shared through the hospitals patient safety forum and governance processes, to ensure lessons learnt are cascaded and communicated to all.
We also offer shorter, skills-based groups aimed at promoting wellbeing and positive coping skills, on the wards and via our recovery college. These include:
- Mindfulness skills
- Interpersonal effectiveness skills
- Distress tolerance skills
- Emotion regulation skills
Our service has also achieved a specialist autism accreditation.
Placement length can be anywhere from a few weeks to years, dependent upon the patient's needs. We keep hope at the heart of what we do by attempting to keep length of stay as low as possible, and plan for discharge at the earliest possible convenience, where safe to do so. Step-down throughout our wards always bear in mind bringing patients closer to home.
Our team
Our team consists of:
- Occupational therapist (OT)
- Head of psychology
- Psychologists
- Nurses
- Involvement lead
- Senior technical instructors
- Technical instructors
- Fitness instructors
- Social workers
Our team of social workers strive to create or rebuild family networks for all patients who may find this helpful to their recovery.
Therapeutic and community-based activities
We offer a range of therapeutic and community-based activities as part of a full treatment programme. We want to support people to become more confident and independent, preparing them to move through their treatment pathway towards community living. The well-established OT service at Stockton Hall undertakes patient-centred assessments to identify meaningful occupations, which promote a patient’s recovery and rehabilitation.
Our therapeutic and community-based activities include:
- Community reintegration skills
- Money management and budgeting
- Fitness and leisure activities
- Domestic skills, including cooking
- Art
- Woodwork
- Gardening
- Real work opportunities and vocational opportunities
- IT skills
- Patient run café and shop
- Recovery college courses
- Music studio recording
- Animation
- Education
- Animal care
- Autism and learning disability services
Patients at Stockton Hall are also able to access education sessions both on the ward and in the therapy department. Sessions are facilitated by a teacher or a teaching assistant who will facilitate an educational assessment and then provide a range of educational opportunities to meet individual needs.
A range of formal and informal learning is available. Patients can access a media suite for online tool teaching opportunities. Interventions range from GCSE, OCR, key skills and functional skills, such as literacy and numeracy. This can lead to national accreditation in these subjects. Stockton Hall is OCR accredited which means that patients are supported in gaining a range of qualifications.
We are proud of the success discharges we support, into less secure/non-secure settings, along with prison remissions. We have strong connections with local providers and pathways, including for locked rehabilitation service. These networks and connections have allowed us to work with all appropriate stakeholders to continual enable safe and appropriate pathways back into the community where possible.
Our facilities and environment
We believe that the environment in which treatment takes place is just as important as the treatment itself, when it comes to supporting our patients. We provide:
Our garden offers secure fencing, a lawn, a shelter, planting areas and gardening activity areas.
Our bedrooms
All of our bedrooms are single-occupancy and have an en-suite bathroom. We provide:
Exclusion profile
- People under the age of 18
- Patients with a brain injury
- Those not detained under the MHA
Pathways
Priory’s network of high-quality facilities enables us to offer joined-up care pathways with our dedicated residential services. We offer programmes which integrate healthcare treatment and therapy, which are tailored according to individual needs, in an appropriate setting. Our strength is that we can provide a seamless transition for the individual as they progress between higher and lower dependency services.
Patients will only remain at Stockton Hall while it is considered that they require care and treatment in conditions of medium security. When they are ready to be transferred to lower security services, or discharged to the community, the hospital has responsibilities under the MHA to ensure that the arrangements are effectively co-ordinated. The hospital has no power to order the transfer or discharge of a restricted patient - this may only be done by the Ministry of Justice or a tribunal.
A message from our site leader
At Stockton Hall, we appreciate how difficult it is for families and patients when they are detained in hospital. We are proud to provide the best care and treatment in the least restrictive manner, to enable individuals to live their lives to the fullest
Stockton Hall site leader
Information for family and friends
How do home visits work?
We will work with people staying with us and their relatives to ensure possible risks are managed and that everyone is supported.
What is your visitation policy?
Visiting times are 9.30am to 12pm and 2pm to 4.30pm. However, more flexible arrangements can be agreed depending on circumstances.
While the hospital encourages everyone to have visitors, it also has a duty to balance the rights of individuals to have visitors against a number of health, safety and security responsibilities. With this in mind, there are a number of restrictions to the way in which visits can take place. These include:
- Children under 18 are only allowed to visit after the patient’s clinical team has given authorisation
- Children must not be left unsupervised on hospital premises, including the reception area or car parks. It is the responsibility of parents/carers to ensure that children are supervised at all times
- An identified child visiting area is provided in the secure part of the hospital. CCTV is used to monitor child visits in accordance with medium secure unit guidelines
- Child visits are carefully planned through initial contact between the person with parental responsibility and the social worker. For further information, please contact the ward
- For health and safety reasons, pregnant visitors, including family members and professionals, are only allowed access into the secure area of the hospital after a risk assessment has been completed
We would prefer that visits do not interrupt therapeutic sessions. With this in mind, weekend visits are often considered to be more suitable. As many visitors have a distance to travel, they will need to plan visits in consultation with ward staff. Visitors are requested to inform the ward of their visit at least 48 hours beforehand. It is suggested that visitors ring the ward on the morning of their visit to confirm the arrangements.
The hospital operates a visiting policy that enables the people staying with us to maintain regular contact with relatives and friends. If they have not visited before, the hospital expects to be provided with contact details, including the address and telephone number for every visitor. All visitors are required to bring either one photographic or two non-photographic proof(s) of identification on their first visit to the hospital.
Will I be involved and kept up to date with my loved one’s care and wellbeing?
Relatives may speak or write to the relevant MDT, with the patient’s permission, and can be involved in aspects of their loved one’s care.
Will my loved one be able to have a phone or call me?
Regular telephone contact with relatives and close friends can be maintained by using the payphone on the ward. Each person staying with us is given 30 minutes’ free access per week to the ward telephone, to assist in maintaining this contact.
What type of things are families expected to provide, and what is provided by the home?
Clothing and toiletries should be provided by the person’s family.
What are the bedrooms like?
All wards are single sex and all bedrooms are en-suite. People staying with us are able to keep, use and access their own property, as long as it is safe to do so and does not present a security risk. However, the hospital has limited storage space and cannot accept large items or large quantities of property that do not fit into the person’s overhead locker in their bedroom.
Are external doors kept locked?
All of our external doors are locked. However, every person staying with us will be individually assessed for any risks to see what security is needed.
What do service users eat and how do meal times work?
Meals are cooked fresh on-site by the hospital’s catering department.
How does laundry work?
The hospital has its own laundry as well as providing laundry facilities for people to use on their own wards.
Is there anything they can’t bring or have?
We have a restricted and prohibited items list, which is reviewed and updated regularly. This can be seen on request, and is provided to patients and their carers.
Are pets allowed?
No pets are not allowed on-site.
How do activities work?
The hospital provides a range of services to extend, maintain or develop patients’ skills and interests. These services are accessed following an assessment by an OT. There are also ward-based activities that may be carried out by an activity organiser and nursing staff. These activities are varied in nature and do not require a referral. Each ward has its own television lounge and dining room that can be used for these purposes.
There is a strong programme of vocational skills training and real work opportunities for those people who are interested in developing their work skills and work experience. Real work opportunities include working in the hospital shop and café for specific periods of time. The service is currently exploring options of extending work placements into the community for future development.
Do service users and families have an input into the service user’s care plans?
People staying with us have input into their care plans, and their families can also be involved if the patient consents to this.
What are the car parking facilities?
There is free car parking on-site.
What is the smoking policy? Can service users buy cigarettes?
Stockton Hall Hospital is a smoke-free environment. Smoke-free means the non-use of conventional cigarettes, related tobacco products and e-cigarettes. This is in line with the government initiative and NHS England. It means that for people staying with us and staff, there is no smoking at all on the hospital site. Non-compliance with this legal requirement may result in prosecution.
How is treatment accessed and funded?
We don’t take referrals directly from individuals and families. Instead, the first step will be for you to reach out to the person’s GP so that they can be referred and funded through the correct NHS channel. Depending on the type of support needed, this could include local authority funding, NHS funding, joint funding between the local authority and NHS, or direct payments. Please note, referrals for NHS or local authority funded services must come from a referring organisation.
How to make a referral
Our customer service centre provides 24/7 support for NHS mental health enquiries and referrals. Our customer referral co-ordinators can support you from your first call right through to the enquiry conclusion, providing updates throughout the process. We offer 24/7 crisis referrals, fast access to bed availability and placements, and a single access point for end-to-end enquiry management.