England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Between 15 May and 21 June 2018, a team of CQC inspectors visited community services for children and young people and community health services for adult inpatients. We inspected these services as part of our continual checks on the safety and quality of health care.
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust delivers community-based healthcare services to over one million residents of Birmingham. Over 100 clinical services are delivered from hospitals, health centres, clinics and peoples’ own homes.
Inspectors rated the care provided to be Good regarding whether services are effective, caring and responsive and Requires Improvement regarding whether services are safe and well-led. The trust’s overall rating is Requires Improvement.
Our comprehensive inspections of NHS trusts have shown a strong link between the quality of overall management of a trust and the quality of its services. For that reason, all trust inspections now include inspection of the well-led key question for the trust overall which was rated Required Improvement.
Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“On our return to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, it was disappointing to see that several areas had declined in quality since we last inspected when we rated them as good overall.
“For example, community health services for children and young people went down from good to inadequate overall, as well as for whether they are safe and well-led.
“It was concerning that risks were not consistently or effectively managed and investigations were not prioritised. Staff were unaware of who was part of the trust’s senior leadership team and some experienced negative responses from local managers when they spoke up about concerns.
“Care planning was inconsistent and referral to treatment times were beyond the 18 week target for therapy and child development services. Mandatory training and safeguarding training were below target and the safeguarding children policy did not support staff effectively.
“In addition, staffing levels were below requirements and some caseloads were unmanageable. Systems to secure investigation, audit and learning were inefficient.
“There were, however, areas where the trust had improved since our last visit. For example, community inpatient services improved to good.
“The effectiveness of care and treatment there was monitored well with regular cycles of audit activity. Staff were competent and received regular appraisals to deliver their roles.
“Services for children and young people and community inpatient services remained as good for being caring. We observed that staff were kind and children and families told us staff were kind and compassionate.
“We have reported our findings to the trust leadership, which knows what it must do to bring about further improvements and ensure it maintains any already made. We will return to check on the trust’s progress.”
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