We carried out an unannounced inspection on 22 August 2012. On the day of our visit there were 48 patients at the Charlton Lane Centre. We spoke with 10 patients, 22 staff members and looked at eight patients' electronic care records and the paper charts on each of the three wards.

Patients told us what it was like to stay at the Charlton Lane Centre. They described how they were treated by staff and their involvement in making choices about their care. They also told us about the quality and choice of food and drink available. This was because this inspection was part of a themed inspection programme to assess whether older patients in hospitals were treated with dignity and respect and whether their nutritional needs are met.

The inspection team was led by a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector joined by a practising professional and an Expert by Experience, who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Some of the patients at the Charlton Lane Centre had a cognitive impairment and therefore some were not able to tell us about their experiences. To help us to understand their experiences we used our SOFI (Short Observational Framework for Inspection) tool. The SOFI tool allowed us to spend time watching what was going on in the service and helped us to record how people spent their time, the type of support they got and whether they had positive experiences.