Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes his findings on Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

17 April 2014

England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has published his first report on the quality of care provided by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.

Overall the report concludes that the trust provides some good and outstanding mental health services. But there were a number of areas where the trust needed to make improvements.

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust was the first mental health trust to be inspected under radical changes which have been introduced by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide a more detailed picture of healthcare than ever before.

A team, including CQC inspectors and analysts, doctors, nurses, social workers, Mental Health Act commissioners, psychologists, patient experts by experience and senior managers, spent three days visiting the trust’s hospitals and community services in Coventry and Warwickshire during January.

They examined the care provided in acute admission wards and health-based places of safety, long stay forensic secure services, services for older people, services for people with learning disabilities or autism, adult community-based services including crisis services, and specialist eating disorder services.

The inspection team found areas of good practice which included:

• The trust’s specialist inpatient eating disorder service, the children’s respite services, Electro Convulsive Therapy unit (ECT) and community services were all seen to be either good or outstanding.
• A number of the trust’s clinics, Lakeview ECT Clinic, Gosford Ward at the Caludon centre and Amber Ward at Brooklands, had previously been rated as excellent by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
• Inspectors found good examples of multi-disciplinary partnership working that were person-centred and which planned for effective discharge from hospital. School nurses demonstrated good partnership working with midwives, police and social services.
• Children’s respite services benefitted from established teams which had a long–term relationship, good rapport and understanding with the children they looked after.

Inspectors said that the trust must improve in a number of areas. It needs to ensure that:

• The planning and delivery of care meets people’s individual needs.
• Effective arrangements are in place to identify, assess and manage risks consistently across services.
• People are protected against unsafe or unsuitable premises.
• Suitable storage, recording and monitoring systems are in place to ensure medicines are handled safely and appropriately.
• There are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff available at all times.
• Accurate records, containing the appropriate information about people’s care and treatment, need to be maintained and records must be securely kept.

The Chief Inspector, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “We found some examples of good practice in services at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust and excellent training for some teams but there were inconsistencies and good practice was not always replicated across the organisation.

“Staff employed by the trust were caring and committed and they interacted well with patients. However, some wards were poorly staffed and frequently used agency workers or non-permanent staff, which meant the ability of staff to provide consistent care was reduced.

“Improvements were also needed with regard to the trust learning from incidents and communicating consistent messages to staff.

“The trust is aware of its shortcomings, is receptive to our findings and has already begun to address the issues we highlighted. Our inspectors will return in the future to check what progress and improvements have been made.”

Ends

For media enquiries, contact regional communications officer, Helen Gildersleeve, on 0191 233 3379. CQC’s press office can also be reached on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.

Notes to editors

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust provides mental health services and covers a population of 1,053.

CQC has published reports on services provided by the trust at:

• Trust Headquarters (Wayside House)
• Aspen Centre
• Brooklands
• Caludon Centre
• Children’s respite services
• Highfield House
• Hawkesbury Lodge
• St Michael’s Hospital
• The Manor Hospital
• Woodloes House.

The reports which CQC publish today are based on a combination of the inspection team’s findings, information from CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring system, and information provided by patients, the public and other organisations.

Read the full reports.

The Care Quality Commission has already presented its findings to a local Quality Summit, including NHS commissioners, providers, regulators and other public bodies. The purpose of the Quality Summit is to develop a plan of action and recommendations based on the inspection team’s findings.