Southern Health NHS Trust CQC rating drops from Good to Requires Improvement
A NHS Trust in Hampshire has been told it needs to improve, in a report out today by independent care inspectors.
The Care Quality Commission carried out an inspection of six of Southern Health's ten core mental health services.
It found areas of concern, including not enough staff to meet people's needs leading to low morale. But it found a stable and capable leadership.
The Trust says it is disappointed by the rating change and says it's responding to the staffing pressures which has been one of its biggest challenges during the pandemic.
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest providers of mental health, specialist mental health, learning disabilities and community health services in the UK. Services are provided across Hampshire and the south of England.
These sites include community hospitals, health centres, and inpatient units.
Ron Shields, Chief Executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, said:
"Our staff have been phenomenal over the last two years, doing everything possible to maintain services in extraordinary circumstances and we are pleased that this has been recognised by the CQC.
"During this time, staff resources have been incredibly stretched in some areas and this has been reflected in the CQC's findings.
"Whilst we are disappointed by the change in overall rating, we are encouraged that the CQC praised our staff and our culture of care, heard positive feedback from patients, and found strong, supportive leadership actively tackling the challenges.
"Staffing is one of the biggest challenges the Trust and the NHS faces, and even more so during this pandemic. We are responding to the staffing pressures highlighted by the CQC and are focused on supporting the health and wellbeing of our people.
"As can be seen from the report, the Trust provides many good services and will continue to improve in those areas identified by the CQC. We remain totally committed to providing the best possible care to our patients."
All other services were not inspected and therefore their rating remains the same. This means that the majority of services remain good and over 90% of their community health services continue to be good or outstanding.
In addition to the challenges highlighted by the CQC, staff were praised as being "respectful, compassionate and kind towards patients. Staff were also friendly, approachable and supportive."
The CQC saw "positive interactions between staff and patients. Staff were highly motivated and provided care in a way that promoted patient's dignity."
The Trust leadership was found to be "highly skilled, strong, stable and experienced"
During October and November, CQC carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of six of the ten core mental health services provided by the trust, as part of its continual checks on the safety and quality of healthcare services.
These were:
Wards for people with a learning disability or autistic people
Child and adolescent mental health wards (CAMHS)
Forensic inpatient/secure wards
Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units (PICU)
Wards for older people with mental health problems
Mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety
Following the inspection, the overall rating for the trust dropped from good to requires improvement.
The rating for safe also dropped from good to requires improvement.
Effective remains as requires improvement, while caring, responsive and well-led remain as good.
The drop in ratings reflects specific concerns that inspectors had about safety issues.
However, the trust has a new, stable, highly skilled and experienced leadership team in place, and they were taking action to address these issues and make improvements.