An important message from Cathy Waters, Chief Executive

As reported in the media we can confirm that The Retreat will be withdrawing from the provision of inpatient and residential services by 31 December 2018.  We will continue to offer mental health services through the development and expansion of our community psychological assessment, diagnostic and therapy services at the Tuke Centre, including our Autism and ADHD service.  We would like to assure our Tuke Centre and Autism and ADHD clients that their services are not affected by the changes to our inpatient services. Indeed, as previously stated, we are planning to improve, expand and grow these services to become the future of The Retreat. To find out more please visit www.thetukecentre.org.uk

Our older adult units, George Jepson and Katherine Allen closed on 30 November 2018. We have safely supported the transition of all of the patients in our older adult services on to new settings and have received excellent feedback from patients, carers and commissioners about the planning and management of this process.  As part of the transition plan, our staff have visited patients in their new settings, both to provide support and to ensure that the new staff teams, involved in the care of the patients, have all the information they need to provide the best possible continuation of care.

We have also been working with City of York Council to transfer our Learning Disabilities service to Mencap, providing continuity of care for our tenants and jobs for our staff.  The transfer of this service will take place on 1 January 2019.

In addition, we have signed a legally binding agreement with Schoen Clinic, a family-run German hospital group, for the acquisition of our adult service units, Naomi and Kemp.  The transfer of these services will take place on 1 January 2019. Established over 30 years ago, Schoen Clinic is the leading provider for mental health disorders in Germany and entered the UK mental health market in 2017, with the transfer of Newbridge House, an outstanding CQC-rated Child and Adolescent Eating Disorder facility in Birmingham.

We are pleased to have been able to provide continuity of care for some of our inpatients and tenants and to secure jobs for over 70% of staff originally put at risk of redundancy through the transfer of services.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the professionals who have referred patients into our inpatient and residential services over the years. We would particularly like to thank carers for working with us in partnership in the care of their loved ones and pay tribute to the many patients who have allowed us into their lives and to play such an important role in their care.

This has been a very difficult time for our staff and we would like to thank them for their continued professionalism and dedication.  They have consistently prioritised the care of our patients and tenants regardless of the uncertainty they have faced on a personal level.

Cathy Waters
Chief Executive