First round of NHS mental health trust inspections completed

Case study: South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Trust provides mental health, learning disability and specialist children's services across South Staffordshire and mental health and learning disability services in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Powys. It serves a core population across South Staffordshire and Shropshire of 1.1 million people, over an area of around 2,200 square miles.

CQC inspected the core services provided by the trust 21 – 24 March 2016, from which the trust was rated as good in all five domains.

On inspection, CQC found the trust to be well-led at board level and this was reflected in the leadership demonstrated throughout the services provided.

The majority of staff acknowledged that leaders and managers had made significant impact on the culture of the organisation, but also highlighted some examples requiring further areas of work. Most staff believed that positive culture and development would continue.

Core services were seen to be of a consistently high quality and the passion and skills of the staff were fundamental to achieving quality outcomes for people who use the services. Inspectors found outstanding practice in the community mental health services for older people where staff demonstrated care and responsiveness that ensured patients and their families were fully involved in decisions about their care.

CQC’s James Mullins Head of Hospital Inspection (Mental Health) for Central West Region, said:

‘During our inspection, we were impressed with every aspect of the trust. We witnessed caring staff who went the extra mile and a board that was knowledgeable and helped enable the staff to do their very best.

‘The joined-up approach exhibited by all staff from the top to the bottom was tangible and this had a direct impact upon the quality of services and on patient experience.

‘We saw some examples of the trust going above and beyond to ensure that services reflected the needs of patients; an example of this being the running of eight Community Managed Libraries by the Trust in partnership with Staffordshire County Council, giving patients access to work experience. The initiative has also helped reduce stigma towards people with mental health problems and promoted the wellbeing agenda for local communities.

‘The passion and skills of the staff in each area was clear and a key component of the quality of the services being delivered.‘

Neil Carr, Chief Executive South Staffordshire and Shropshire Health care Foundation Trust, said:

‘Our Trust, from corporate support to clinical, were much engaged and looked forward to the CQC inspection. Staff really wanted to showcase services and the care delivered every day; a real sense of collective pride in what we do.

‘The CQC inspection team were constructive, interested in what staff, service users, carers and partners had to say and eager to learn from us, as in turn our teams wanted to absorb their experience and knowledge.

‘The end result confirmed the commitment, passion, care and transparency of our staff and this has been hugely motivating and energising for our organisation.

Of course we knew that there were areas to improve and indeed those highlighted by the CQC were of no surprise. Our discussion with them at local and senior level, on developing improvement plans, was helpful and we embraced the positive tone of the feedback. Indeed it whetted the appetite to work quickly on action to make us an outstanding Trust in the future.’