- SERVICE PROVIDER
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
We served a warning notice on Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust on 24 June 2025 for failing to meet the regulations related to providing timely access to treatment.
Report from 13 January 2026 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Community-based mental health services for adults of working age
Our view of the service
We carried out an inspection of the trust’s community mental health services for working age adults from 13 May to 30 May 2025. The community-based mental health services for adults of working age form part of the trust’s mental health services in the community. This inspection was completed as part of CQC's Adult Community Mental Health Programme. We also inspected the trust’s crisis services and health-based places of safety as part of the programme. The programme of inspections contributes to CQC's commitment to inspect the standard of care in community mental health services across the country. We undertook a short notice announced, comprehensive inspection of this service, looking at all 5 key questions to assess if services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) is part of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care System and serves a population of more than 1.1 million people. The trust employs 8600 staff and has 235 volunteers. LPT covers both city and rural locations with diverse populations. Leicester is the most deprived area in the system and ranks as one of the most deprived local authorities in England. Rutland and Leicestershire are two of the least deprived local authorities in England. Leicester’s population is younger than the national average, while Rutland has a higher proportion of its population aged 65 and over compared to the national average. Leicester has a higher than national average population of people from ethnic minority groups, with 43.4% from Asian or Asian British backgrounds and 7.8% from Black, Black British, Caribbean or African backgrounds. In contrast, Leicestershire and Rutland are less diverse, with around 10% and 3% of their populations being people from ethnic minority groups.
LPT is part of an Associate University Group with Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and the two trusts share a chief executive officer. At the time of our inspection, LPT was going through its integrated neighbourhood transformation. As part of the transformation, the community mental health teams (CMHTs) have become neighbourhood hubs, which other specialist mental health teams and services link in with.
There are 7 CMHTs known as neighbourhood teams across Leicestershire and Rutland:
- City West,
- City East,
- West Leicestershire,
- North West Leicestershire,
- East Leicestershire,
- South Leicestershire,
- Charnwood.
During the inspection we visited 8 sites (Merlyn Vaz Health and Social Care Centre, Loughborough Hospital, Maidstone Centre, Orchard Resource Centre, OSL House, PCT Building Melton Hospital, Hawthorn Centre, Braunstone Health and Social Care Centre). These sites included the following teams:
- community mental health teams,
- psychosis intervention and early recovery (PIER),
- assertive outreach,
- and various medicines clinics.
We spoke to 105 staff of various grades and roles. We spoke to 16 people who used services and 7 carers. We reviewed 55 care records of people who used services and observed a range of meetings and appointments including care and treatment being provided. We reviewed a range of data including complaints, incidents and policies. We reviewed feedback data from Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire.
The team that inspected the community mental health services comprised 3 CQC inspectors, 1 CQC operations manager, 1 CQC delivery manager, 3 CQC pharmacist specialists (also referred to as medicines inspectors), 2 specialist advisors, and 1 expert by experience (someone who has experience of using or caring for someone who uses services).
We last inspected the service as part of a comprehensive inspection in November 2017 when we rated safe, effective and responsive as requires improvement, and caring and well-led as good. We found breaches of the regulations relating to care plans, risk assessments and physical health assessments, staffing, caseload sizes, safe and proper management of medicines and medical equipment, environmental risks, and making sure people under Community Treatment Orders were made aware of their rights. This led to an overall rating of requires improvement.
During this inspection, we saw improvements in relation to medical equipment, and making sure people under Community Treatment Orders were aware of their rights.
However, we rated the service as requires improvement. We identified 3 breaches of the regulations in relation to waiting times, caseload management and governance. Waiting lists in the CMHTs were sometimes long. Some teams in the adult community mental health service had high levels of bank and agency staff usage due to consultant and nursing vacancies. The service’s policies and procedures were not always effective at managing risks. CMHTs still had large caseload sizes. However, the service’s integrated neighbourhood transformation had resulted in effective links with other services and organisations that helped people. The service had effective multi-agency working in place to protect people. Staff wellbeing was well looked after by the trust, and there was a culture in which staff could speak up if they had any concerns.
In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this inspection.
People's experience of this service
Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire received 32 responses about the adult community mental health service between April 2024 and June 2025. Of these responses, 29 were negative, 2 were positive and 1 was mixed. Nine people said that it was difficult to access the adult community mental health service. People mentioned feeling “dropped”, “abandoned” and “dismissed” by the service. Eight people referred to long waiting lists for assessment and treatment with 1 person stating they had to self-fund treatment privately after being put on a waiting list that was 48 months long. Three people said they had to repeat their story several times due to seeing different people. However, 2 people said that the care and support in Leicestershire was better than they had experienced elsewhere.
We spoke to 16 people who used services and 7 carers. Most people spoke positively about the service and the staff. People described feeling safe and supported and having good relationships with staff.
However, 2 people we spoke to, and both their carers, expressed frustration about accessing the service and getting to the point of having their first appointment. In both situations, it seemed people were given incorrect information about the process.
Data from the adult community mental health service’s friends and family test results between April 2024 and June 2025 showed that from 1013 responses, most feedback was positive about staff attitude and implementation of care.