England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated two services that were provided by Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust as Good following inspections in April.
The trust’s end of life and community adult services were both rated as Inadequate at their last inspection in November 2015 but on CQC’s return inspectors found a number of improvements had been made resulting in both services receiving a Good rating.
The trust delivers a wide range of community health and adult social care services across a diverse population across Staffordshire County Council and Stoke on Trent City Council areas.
A team of CQC inspectors visited the trust between 18 and 19 April 2018 and looked at 12 adult community services providing care in people’s own homes, residential homes and clinics, and end of life care.
This focused inspection took place in advance of the merger of the trust with South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust to form Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, on 1 June 2018, and to look at the trust’s progress following a warning notice issued following an inspection in December 2015.
As a result, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust end of life and community adult services are rated as Good overall as well as for whether its services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“We were very pleased with the care we found at Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust.
“Since our last inspection a number of improvements had taken place and the ratings for each key question CQC asks either improved or had been maintained for the end of life care and community adult services. Ratings for whether these services are safe, effective and responsive all improved from Requires Improvement to Good, while the rating for whether they are well-led improved from Inadequate to Good.
“Both services maintained Good ratings for whether services were caring and all staff are to be congratulated for their hard work in achieving this.
“We saw a number of examples of good practice during our inspection and people spoke positively about the care they received from the community nursing staff. We also found patients receiving end of life care valued the personal, one to one support they received.
“We did, however, identify some areas for improvement and it is important that, as these services begin to be delivered under a different trust, that every effort takes place to ensure those improvements take place.
“We will return to inspect the services as part of our inspections of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.”
Among the areas of good practice inspectors found were a District Nurse
Caseload Review Tool which ensured all district nursing caseloads were managed and run effectively. This was awarded first prize and praised for its innovative approach at the Queen’s Nursing Institute Annual Conference in October 2017 and had been shortlisted for a 2018 Health Service Journal Values Award.
Additionally, ‘Wellbeing cafes’ had been set up in conjunction with local councils in South Staffordshire. These provided education and support to patients with long-term conditions which enabled them to remain independent and their conditions to be managed through community services for longer.
The ‘Home First Model’ ensured that people received appropriate and timely assessment, to meet all palliative and end of life needs in a person centred manner at home.
There were a number of areas where the trust should improve its services, however. This included that it should ensure the lone working policy was embedded and followed by all staff working in the community to promote their safety and wellbeing.
Patient records should be consistently completed, with documented reasons for why any assessments or sections are not filled out. And when incident records refer to the fact a safeguarding referral is required, this should be supported with evidence.
The inspection also found mandatory training levels should be consistently achieved and sustained, all sections of patient care plans should be completed, including people’s emotional, spiritual or carer needs and lessons from incidents should be learned so any risks are reduced in future.
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We were very pleased with the care we found at Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals