South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust has been rated Good overall by the Care Quality Commission.
The trust which serves five London boroughs was rated Good for being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
CQC inspected six services as part of our ongoing checks on the safety and quality of healthcare services: acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units; long stay/rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults; community-based mental health services for adults of working age; substance misuse services; child and adolescent mental health wards and specialist community mental health services for children and young people. Three of these services had improved their rating since the last inspection.
Whilst there had been a number of changes in executive directors, the trust was well-led and the senior team were committed to improving services to meet the mental health needs of local communities. It was outward looking and engaged well with external partners. The trust had an open and transparent culture and staff were able to raise concerns. Staff were committed to working for the trust and felt well supported by their managers and colleagues.
The trust encouraged innovation to improve patient care. Recent developments included a service aimed at preventing admission to hospital, and the introduction of recovery cafes, which were very well liked by service users. More than 40 quality improvement initiatives had been completed by staff or were under way across the trust.
The trust was making progress with the recruitment and retention of staff. A detailed review of staffing levels on inpatient wards had led to an increase in staffing on most wards. A caseload weighting tool in the community mental health teams was helping to ensure caseloads for individual staff were manageable.
Senior leaders had good oversight of risks. There was an open and positive culture in respect of reporting incidents. Lessons learned were disseminated to staff and used to improve services.
The trust worked well with local communities, including BME communities and schools, to promote and support mental health initiatives. The trust board had a diverse membership. The trust had set up an expert working group to look at the disproportionate number of black men detained under the Mental Health Act.
However, there was an area where the trust must make improvements. On the acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units the trust needed to take steps to ensure the physical healthcare needs of patients were met. This included monitoring patients’ blood pressure and other observations to ensure that any deteriorations were escalated to senior nursing and medical staff so the appropriate treatment could be given. These observations also needed to take place following patients receiving rapid tranquilisation.
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector (Mental Health) said:
“South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has again been rated Good overall. I was particularly pleased to see some areas of outstanding practice at the trust.
“The trust has been inspected eight times since 2014. We conducted a comprehensive inspection of the trust in March 2016. At that inspection, we rated the trust Requires Improvement overall. We conducted a further inspection of some of the trust’s services in September 2016. Following that inspection, we re-rated the trust as Good overall, so it is pleasing that the trust has further improved those standards and is providing Good care for the community it serves.”
You can see the updated ratings tables on pages 16 and 17 of the latest inspection report. You can read the report in full on our website.
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I was particularly pleased to see some areas of outstanding practice at the trust
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health)