The services are based at Albion Mill, Burnley General Hospital, Clitheroe Community Hospital and Pendle Community Hospital.

The inspection was carried out in response to concerns received about Pendle Community Hospital with inspectors visiting seven wards across the four locations.

The overall rating for the service, as well as the area of responsive was downgraded from good to requires improvement. Safe was rated requires improvement again and effective, caring and well-led were rerated good. The overall rating for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust remained good.

Inspectors found pressures on staff sometimes impacted their ability to provide a good standard of care. Staff also did not always include people in discussions about their care plans and treatment, and people were not always responded to in a timely manner.

The service did not always make it easy for people to share feedback and ideas or raise complaints about their care and there were limited opportunities for people to self-administer medicines as part of their rehabilitation.

On the upside, ward managers described good working relationships with local safeguarding teams, with systems in place to ensure concerns were reported promptly.

Staff treated people and those close to them in a respectful, discreet and considerate way and the service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control.

Peter Murphy, chief nurse at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, said: ‘Everyone in our community inpatient teams works incredibly hard to provide the very best care for our patients. That was recognised not only by inspectors who commented how they treated patients with kindness, empathy and compassion but also by patients who told inspectors they were happy with their care overall.

‘While we are disappointed to see the overall rating of the community inpatient service change, I am pleased that we have retained good for caring, effective and being well-led and there were many areas highlighted as good practice.

‘The trust aspires to be an outstanding organisation and will be working to improve our ratings in every area.

Murphy said the trust would be reviewing opportunities for self-administration of medication and strengthening responsiveness to patient needs and feedback.