CQC rates Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust as Good

Care Quality Commission inspectors have rated Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust as Good, following an inspection in January 2016.

A team of inspectors led by Professor Tim Kendall, Director, National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Royal College of Psychiatrists and Medical Director, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust concluded that the trust located in North London has much to be proud of but also some areas that need to improve.

Inspectors found that there were many committed and enthusiastic staff throughout the organisation working hard to improve the delivery of psychological therapies. They provided innovative services and national specialist services to children, young people and adults in out-patient and community settings.

CQC inspectors spoke with “very caring staff” in all of the services and teams they visited. They were clearly focused on and understood the needs of patients they worked with. The inspectors received a lot of positive feedback from patients and parents about staff.

There were several excellent examples of staff working in partnership with other organisations such as local schools, GPs and health visitors.

Staff received regular supervision, which they felt was of high quality. Staff described significant opportunities for further professional development.

They provided patients with good quality psychological therapies which were evidence based. Some teams were undertaking innovative projects to enhance patient care and treatment or were involved in research.

The trust recognised particular areas of local need and developed services to help meet those needs. For example, the excellent work with refugee communities.

However, there were some areas that needed improvement. The main ones were that the documentation in relation to the risk assessment and risk management of patients was sometimes poor, particularly in the Portman clinic. Patients did not always have clear crisis plans in place that staff could find quickly in an emergency.

In addition, services were struggling to implement the new electronic patient records system. Some services were keeping both paper and electronic records for the same patient and the paper records could be hard to read. Also the trust did not always make the physical health care needs of patients a high priority. Information about how to access a new independent advocacy service needed to be made more available. Further work was needed to ensure all infection risks were managed appropriately.

Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals and lead for mental health, said:

“Our inspection team was generally impressed by what they saw at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. The staff were focused on their work and cared well for the patients in their care. The trust has much to be proud of.

“The staff provide high quality care. The trust is a national leader in psychological therapies and some of its services are highly innovative. Staff were well trained and led by enthusiastic and committed senior members.

“There were some areas that required improvement. However, we are confident that the trust can address these issues.”

full report, including ratings for the trust’s core services, is available at www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RNK

Ends

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