Joint Unannounced Visit/Safe Delivery of Care Inspection Report: Dudhope Young People's Inpatient Unit

Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission today (Thursday 26 February) published a report relating to a joint unannounced visit and inspection to Dudhope Young People’s Inpatient Unit, NHS Tayside, which took place in October 2025. 

This is the fourth published report of Scotland’s in-patient child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). We have now jointly visited and inspected the three regional services, as well as the national facility. 
 

Our Dudhope Unit report highlights:

Areas of good practice

• During our onsite visit/inspection we observed nurturing, encouraging and compassionate interactions between staff and young people.
• Parents and carers felt involved and they had confidence and trust in the clinical team.
• Staff felt supported to do their job to the best of their ability and felt able to raise concerns. Staff described visible and supportive senior managers and a supportive clinical team.
• Nursing care plans demonstrated a holistic approach to care and treatment. The care plans were practical, clear and involved the young people and their families.
• The unit has developed a range of supportive resources for the young people receiving care and their families. There has also been specific work on developing age specific accessible resources to support siblings of young people receiving care.
• Activity programmes are varied, person-centred and focused on young people’s interests within and out with the unit.
• The school, its staff and leadership were an integral part of the Dudhope team. There were no restrictions on access to education, irrespective of the young person’s home local authority or if they were still on a school roll in their local area.

Areas for improvement

• A risk was identified where key clinical information around significant events, such as restraint, was not being recorded adequately in clinical records. Regular audits need to be carried out to provide assurance.
• There was a lack of psychology provision in the unit to undertake one-to-one interventions. However, we were advised that the psychology vacancy would be filled soon after our visit/inspection.
• There was no social worker based in the unit and this has been a long-standing staffing gap.
• Gaps in staff training were identified. NHS Tayside are required to ensure staff are provided with adequate training to safely carry out their roles, including that all staff who administer rapid tranquillisation have completed immediate life support training or equivalent.
• There were significant delays in maintaining the health care environment including the maintenance of fire doors and completion of fire risk assessment actions. 

Our visit and inspection resulted in five areas for improvement and six requirements.

Speaking of the report, Robbie Pearson, Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, and Julie Paterson, Chief Executive of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, said:

“Dudhope Young People's Inpatient Unit plays a significant role in delivering specialist care across the North of Scotland for young people. Consistent with our recent visits to other units, the Mental Welfare Commission listened to the direct experiences of young people receiving care and Healthcare Improvement Scotland reviewed the organisation of the system of care.

“The report highlights the voices and experiences of young people. We heard that staff are never too busy to spend time with the young people and their families spoke of having trust and confidence in the care provided. We found there to be a well-functioning multidisciplinary team at Dudhope Unit which ensured that practice is fully compliant with mental health law.

“We saw positive examples of a supportive senior management team, who provided a positive working environment for staff to enable them to do their job to the best of their ability. 

“However, we also found things that need to be improved. This includes risks in how clinical information is recorded, persistent gaps in specialist staff, a lack of adequate staff training, and delays in maintaining a safe environment.

“We are confident that the requirements and recommendations are the right ones to ensure improvements in the care that young people receive.

“An improvement action plan has been developed by NHS Tayside and we expect the NHS board to address the areas for improvement and prioritise the requirements to meet national standards.”