We provide forensic and secure mental health services. We are one of only three Trusts in the country to provide high secure services, with our catchment area covering Wales and the North West and West Midlands of England.

We also provide medium and low secure services, community forensic services and mental health services in a number of prisons, including HMP Liverpool.

Our specialist learning disability services provide treatment for adults with a learning disability or other development disorder. We support people with significant and complex needs both in inpatient settings and through community based services.  

Our services include:

More information about our larger sites can be found below:

Aspen Wood Low Secure Facility (opening Spring 2024)

In November 2020 Sefton Council gave full planning permission for a new 40 bed specialist learning disability hospital, a state of the art facility offering short to medium term care for service users. The Trust's Board of Directors approved the Full Business Case in January 2021.

This follows NHS England's intention not to commission learning disability services from our Whalley site and the recent transfer of medium secure to Rowan View.

The new low secure site will offer world class care in a new therapeutic environment delivering an entirely new model of secure learning disability care.

Visit our Maghull low secure page for more information.

Marlowe, Chesterton and Tennyson units

Our low secure inpatient services are for adults with mental health problems who are involved in the criminal justice system. This will often be people who have been given a custodial (prison) sentence but have been moved to one of our low secure mental health wards to support their mental health needs. These three units are based at Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington.

Find out more on this page.

Rathbone Hospital

The following services are available at this location:

  • Community Mental Health service
  • Secure wards

For more info, visit our Rathbone Hospital page.

Rowan View Hospital

  • An environment that will promote the integration of physical and mental wellbeing
  • A social hub incorporating a café, therapy rooms, multi faith room, sports hall, gymnasium, music rooms, skills for life room, IT suite, bank and a physical health suite
  • Use of therapeutic technology for the benefit of patients and staff including virtual reality and avatar therapy
  • Art and design created by expert designers working closely with service users to enhance the site, its reception and corridors and its therapeutic spaces
  • Flower gardens and green spaces
  • Built to excellent environmental standards.

Visit our Rowan View Hospital page.

Ashworth High Secure Hospital is part of Mersey Care’s Maghull Health Park, a centre of excellence for secure care.

New services are on the site as part of our leading work in creating a new care pathway for people with forensic mental health and learning disability needs.

We provide forensic low secure and specialist learning disability care in our site in the Ribble Valley. 


Byron Ward (Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington)

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust's Specialist Treatment, Assessment and Recovery (STAR) Unit is also based at Byron Ward at Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington. 

It works as an inpatient assessment and treatment facility for adults with learning disability and/or autism, who require specialist support. Our aim is to understand functions of behaviours and access mental health treatment which may not be possible to carry out within a community setting.

Our vision is to support service users through assessment, engagement and activity to achieve a timely discharge into the community.

More information about our services at Hollins Park Hospital can be found here.

Mersey Care is recognised as a lead organisation in the provision of Offender Health services namely prison healthcare as well as community forensic services. The NHS currently delivers 66 per cent of health care services into prisons with local providers typically serving local prisons. 

NHS England is now re-commissioning prison health care services across a broad landscape of provision ie across prison ‘clusters’ as opposed to single establishments and Mersey Care is developing a programme of expansion in relation to its Offender Health and Community Forensic portfolio.

Currently we provide a range of services into:

  • HMP Altcourse
  • HMP Liverpool
  • HMP Wymott

We provide mental health services in partnership with main provider Spectrum CIC. We also provide specialist Personality Disorder services into HMP Garth in Lancashire.

A range of established community forensic services provide psychological interventions to high risk offenders in the community, including Mersey Forensic Psychology Service, and consultation services in partnership with local probation trusts. We are working on further developing this specialist offender pathway with partner organisations and commissioners.

For more information, contact us on 0151 473 0303