CQC publishes reports on South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Published: 24 March 2017 Page last updated: 3 November 2022
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The Care Quality Commissions has published reports on three services run by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

This follow up inspection in December 2016 was was to check on the progress of improvements the trust were told to make following a comprehensive inspection in March 2016. The three reports published are for the specialist community mental health services for children and young people, community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism and forensic inpatient/secure wards.

The full report, including ratings for the provider’s core services, is available on our website.

This inspection does not affect the trust’s overall rating of Requires Improvement.

In community mental health services for children and young people, there were improvements since the last inspection, and the service’s rating has moved from Requires Improvement to Good. The key findings included:

  • The service had addressed the issues which caused inspectors to rate the safety of the service as Requires Improvement, and were now meeting their regulatory requirements.
  • The service had introduced a process to help manage the risks of young people on the waiting list. This had also helped to reduce waiting times within some teams.
  • Improvements had been made to the quality of information in records through additional training for staff.
  • Although waiting times for treatment for young people had improved in Calderdale and Kirklees, and Wakefield, there were still significant delays within the Barnsley team. Some young people were waiting over 22 months. There were also long waits across all teams for young people waiting to be assessed for autistic spectrum disorder and related conditions.

In community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism there were improvements in how the service was led, but we found additional concerns relating to the safety of the service. This service’s rating remained Requires Improvement. The key findings included:

  • Staff could not quickly access risk assessments in 17 of the 26 care records inspectors reviewed. They were either stored in different formats and/or different locations, or had not migrated to the new electronic system.
  • Waiting times to see members of the multidisciplinary team and for specialist clinics were long in Barnsley and Kirklees. Therefore, the community-based mental health services for people with a learning disability or autism were still not meeting regulation.
  • The service had improved the speed of access to psychology, meaning that nobody was waiting for longer than 18 weeks for psychological assessment or therapy.
  • The trust had restructured their learning disability teams and all staff are now accountable to trust managers. This meant that the service had addressed the issues that caused CQC to rate the well-led domain as Requires Improvement following the inspection in March 2016. They are now rated as Good in this area.

In the trust’s forensic inpatient/secure wards there were real improvements in the safety of the service and also how it was led. These domains changed from Requires Improvement to Good, meaning overall the service has moved from Requires Improvement to Good. However there were not enough improvements in the effectiveness of the service since the previous inspection so this domain remains as Requires Improvement. The key findings included:

  • The nursing staff levels on each ward matched the number of nurses required. This meant that patient’s leave, physical health appointments and ward based activities were less likely to be cancelled due to the lack of staff.
  • Mental capacity assessments were not documented in the notes of patients. Staff also lacked knowledge and awareness regarding the processes of completing and documenting mental capacity information.
  • In March 2016, the staff appraisal compliance for two wards was 50% and 46%. At this inspection, appraisal rates for the last 12 months were 63% overall, which was not in line with trust policy.
  • We found that the trust had made good progress to ensure those patients who met the criteria for challenging behaviour, had positive behavioural support plans in place. This was in keeping with guidance from NHS England.

Ends

For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966. 

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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.