Pastoral Cymru Ltd.

Pastoral Cymru Ltd is a leading independent provider of specialist mental health services. It provides low secure services for those who suffer from a mental illness and/ or personality disorder. Its services are comprehensive and therapeutically enhanced, delivering a full range of evidence-based interventions, care and treatment provided by a full multi-disciplinary team. Pastoral Cymru’s service provision is evaluated and complemented through collaboration with Cardiff University via a multi-disciplinary research programme in forensic psychiatry and psychology that aims to demonstrate the difference its service provision makes to service users’ mental health and quality of life. It has modern, state of the art purpose-built facilities that provide the best available environments to foster the care, treatment and rehabilitation of its service users.

Origins

It was recognised that there was a “gap in the market” for good quality low secure services in South Wales. Research suggested that many local patients were being accommodated in Units across the country, far from friends and families and that they would benefit from more local services where family support could be established and maintained far easier. It was also recognised that mental health provision was notoriously “a revolving door” process with patients being admitted, discharged and re admitted on a regular basis. Pastoral Cymru’s services have been developed based on academic research, building on close links to Cardiff University, that is aimed at remedying this problem. The general economic climate has obviously made growing this type of business far more difficult, but as the company provides very specialist services, planned Government cuts are unlikely to affect anticipated growth. In addition, a general shortage of qualified mental health nurses has added an additional burden to recruitment plans. Finally, the historic attitude of the general public to mental illness also proved an obstacle initially but good management practices and transparent, proactive relationships with neighbours have ensured a very good working relationship.

Success factors

The three main success factors for the business are the growing need for provision of low secure mental health services; recognition by Commissioners of the company’s commitment and expertise to service provision; and further recognition of the expert clinical and medical services it provides.

The future?

Pastoral Cymru recognises the need to consolidate current service provision but that in itself will double the size of the business in 2011. There are further plans to build a third unit in Northamptonshire with the construction of this building starting in September 2011.

Sector: Specialist low secure mental health services

Established: 2007

Growth: 737%