Katrina Percy keeps job as chief executive of Southern Health

Katrina Percy will remain in her job as chief executive despite calls for her to step down Credit: ITV Meridian

The chief executive of under-fire Southern Health NHS Trust, Katrina Percy, will keep her job despite widespread criticism and calls for her removal.

The Trust has been condemned for failing to properly investigate around 1,000 unexplained deaths.

Tim Smart, Interim Chair of Southern Health, has announced in a report that Miss Percy will not be removed from her role, but admitted that the executive team "has been too stretched to guarantee high quality services everywhere that Southern Health operates".

Concerns about the Trust were first raised after the death of 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk, who drowned in a bath at a care home in Oxford in 2013. An inquest found neglect contributed his death.

His step father, Richard West was one of a number of parents who attended a meeting with Tim Smart this morning to discuss the review. In a statement, he criticised the decision to keep Katrina Percy as chief executive of the trust, calling it "unjust".

Connor Sparrowhawk drowned while at a care home in Oxford