CQC rate Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement
England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in May and June.
The service was rated as Requires Improvement for safety and well-led, Good for caring, effectiveness and responsiveness. As a result of this inspection, the trust’s overall rating has gone down from Good to Requires Improvement.
CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led? Full details of the ratings, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published online at: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/TAH. The rating grid can found on pages 14 and 15 of the report.
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector for hospitals and lead for mental health, said:
“We last inspected Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust in November 2016 when we rated them as Good overall. Since that inspection, the trust has gone through a reconfiguration of services and the implementation of a new management structure. We concluded that, during this period, the senior leadership of the trust did not recognise a deterioration in safety of services. This is reflected in our changing the rating for well led from Good to Requires Improvement.
“The overall trust rating remained at Requires Improvement for the key question: Are services safe? For safety, we rated five of the eight core services as Requires Improvement and one as Inadequate. Staff on some wards had not identified the risks that features of the ward environment might pose to patient safety. The trust was frequently reliant on bank and agency staff to maintain safe staffing numbers and there were not always enough staff on duty trained in the use of physical interventions.
“It is encouraging to report that the trust had acted on some of the feedback from our last inspection. For adult long-stay patients on rehabilitation wards the trust had increased qualified nurse staffing; staff were focused on recovery and discharged patients to alternative placements as they improved.
“We found community-based mental health services for older people to be Outstanding. There was strong emphasis on maintaining patients’ links with the local community with lots of groups for older people and an active service user group who made decisions and gave feedback on proposed changes to the service.
“We will return to inspect the trust at a later date to check on whether progress has been made.”
Inspectors found that staff respected patients’ privacy, dignity and confidentiality. Crisis services were flexible; patients who could not access the service could be seen at home or in the local community.
Inspectors could see that the senior leadership team were visible and accessible to staff, patients and carers. Managers at all levels promoted a culture that supported and valued staff
For forensic inpatient low secure services, the rating fell from Good to Requires Improvement. Although there had been some improvements, further work was still required to ensure that a seclusion room at the Forest Lodge low secure service meets the Mental Health Act code of practice.
Long-stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults improved from Requires Improvement to Good. The trust taken action to improve the environments, increase qualified nurse staffing, increase mandatory training compliance, and improve patients’ physical health care monitoring.
Community-based mental health services for older people improved from Good to Outstanding.
The inspection team found some outstanding areas of practice, including in community mental health services for older people, where staff used information innovative ways to maintain people’s independence and reduce confusion for patients with a memory problem. The team also had therapy dolls for people with dementia who showed symptoms of anxiety or distress.
Ends
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