England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by 2gether NHS Foundation Trust as Good following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
A team of inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited the trust between February and March 2018 to check the quality of four core mental health services: community based mental health services for older people, wards for people with learning disabilities or autism, wards for older people with mental health problems, specialist community mental health services for children and young people. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led?
Full reports including ratings for all of the provider’s core services are available on our website.
The trust retained its overall rating of Good and its ratings of Good for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led and Requires Improvement for being safe.
Inspectors found at this inspection that there had been improvements within the services inspected. Wards for older people with mental health problems are now rated Outstanding for being caring. Community-based mental health services for older people are now rated Good.
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals and CQC’s lead for mental health, said:
“I am pleased that the staff at 2gether NHS Foundation Trust have managed to embed improvements in their services without being too distracted by the forthcoming merger with Gloucestershire Care Services Community Trust. We were particularly impressed by the care on the wards for old people.
“There are still some areas for improvement within wards for people with a learning disability and wards for older people with mental health problems and we expect the board to continue to focus on these areas on behalf of their patients. In the meantime I congratulate all the staff on the progress that we have seen.”
The reports highlight several areas of good practice, including:
Staff worked well to ensure that care plans were patient-centred. Within most of the teams there was a good mix of different mental health staff who worked well together and with outside agencies to ensure that patients received the best possible care.
Staff were caring and respectful towards patients. Patients told inspectors that they were involved in decisions about their care and that staff considered their well-being and took their experiences as a patient into account when giving treatment.
Inspectors found that staff were responsive to the needs of their patients - demonstrated in the time it took for patients to receive an assessment and then treatment, and in the way staff in the wards worked to help patients prepare for discharge from the hospital.
There was evidence of excellent leadership at all levels across the trust with many dedicated, compassionate staff who were striving to deliver the best care for their patients.
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I congratulate all the staff on the progress that we have seen
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health)