CQC rates Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement

Published: 10 January 2019 Page last updated: 10 January 2019
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A West Midlands mental health trust has been rated Requires Improvement overall by the Care Quality Commission. Previously it had been rated as Good.

Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (BCP) was rated Requires Improvement for being safe and effective and Good for being caring, responsive and well-led, following the inspection in July and August 2018.
 
The trust provides services for people who live predominantly in the boroughs of Sandwell and Wolverhampton, with services also provided in Dudley and Walsall, in the West Midlands.
 
CQC inspected six core services: speciality community mental health services for children and young people; community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism; wards for people with a learning disability or autism; mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety; acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units and wards for older people with mental health problems.
 
Inspectors found that not all properties were clean, well-furnished or fit for purpose. Staff did not manage medicines consistently well. Not all staff received regular managerial and clinical supervision. In parts of the trust staff had to use three different electronic recording systems - plus paper notes. The governance systems from ward to board were not sufficiently strong to have identified and rectified a number of risks.
 
CQC also concluded that the trust board was re-establishing its control of performance following aborted merger plans.
 
Areas where the trust must now improve care on specialist community mental health services for children and young people include:
 
  • Ensuring staff have access to an alarm system or personal alarms to alert others in the event of an emergency.
  • Ensuring all areas are clean and meet infection control standards.
  • Ensuring the appropriate monitoring storage temperatures for medicines and take appropriate action when these exceed specified ranges.
  • Ensuring staff working with children and young people have a clear understanding of Gillick Competency (where people under the age of 16 are entitled to consent to their own treatment) and understand where and why this would be applied.

Areas where the trust must now improve care on acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric Intensive care units include:

  • Ensuring that patients are supported in the least restrictive way.
  • Ensuring that all wards are well maintained and clean.
  • Ensuring that all emergency equipment is present and in order.
  • Ensuring that staff follow safe medicines management.
  • Ensuring that all infection control procedures are followed. 

The trust must now improve community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism:

  • Ensuring that care plans demonstrate that patients are receiving holistic and person-centred care.

However, CQC did find evidence of Outstanding practice in the specialist community mental health service for children and young people. Staff issued young people and their relatives with information regarding online therapy. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services had its own patient designed website that contained information for young people and their carers. The website contained interactive material and age appropriate information presented in an engaging way.

Dr Paul Lelliott, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector (and lead for mental health) said: “Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation NHS Trust must act to make the improvements that we have identified to the care it provides to people.

“The trust board’s ability to focus on day to day running of the services has been hampered because of uncertainty created by a proposed merger with other NHS trusts.  We concluded that this had adversely affected the quality of some of the trust’s services.  During our inspection, we saw evidence that the leadership team were picking up the reins once again.  It is vital that they follow through and we expect to see the trust perform better all-round the next time we visit the trust.”

Ends

For further information, please contact Louise Grifferty on 07717 422917 or, on 9 January only contact Ray Cooling on 07341 739176 . Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here: www.cqc.org.uk/media/our-media-office. Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters.

For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61. 

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.