Plans are on the table for a proposed merger between North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT) from April this year. Between them, the Trusts provide a range of mental health, community health and learning disabilities NHS services in Essex and Bedfordshire.
No final decisions to merge have been made yet. Both Trusts are firmly committed to acting only in the best interests of the people using their services, their families and carers. This will be the deciding factor in any decisions. In the meantime, it remains “business as usual” for services at both Trusts for the foreseeable future.
England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as Good following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in January and February.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides services across Northamptonshire to a population of 700,000. The trust offers a comprehensive range of physical, mental health and specialist services, many of which are provided in hospital, or from a GP surgery or clinic.
The trust was previously inspected in February 2015 when it was rated as Requires Improvement overall. Inspectors found considerable improvements had been made at the latest inspection where the care was rated as Good overall.
Inspectors found many examples of excellent care – but they also found too much poor care and far too much variation in both quality and access across different services. This is particularly concerning given the increasing demand for mental health services, meaning that more people risk receiving care that is not good enough – or no care at all.
In a letter to the Guardian, co-signed with a number of mental health organisations, we highlight the findings of our The State of the NHS Provider Sector report in which trusts tell us of the overwhelming pressure on services.
We, along with nine organisations, call for a three stage clear and unequivocal response to the demand, workforce and financial pressure felt by trusts that provide mental health services.
Brief description of two initiatives: 'Mood on Track' self management course to help people with bipolar identify early warning signs and develop coping skills; and Acute Therapy Service as alternative to hospital admission.
Devon Partnership NHS Trust ... has been awarded an overall rating of ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The services inspected at Devon Partnership NHS Trust in December 2016 were rated as ‘good’ across the board in the five domains assessed by the CQC, these are Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. Among these the Secure Service, which is based at Langdon in Dawlish, received a rating of ‘outstanding’ for its responsiveness.
One of the largest providers of NHS services in Northamptonshire has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Outstanding regarding whether services were caring.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) provides a comprehensive range of physical, mental health and specialist services, many of which are provided in hospital, from a GP surgery, clinic or in the patient’s own homes.
The CQC carried out a comprehensive assessment of NHFT services in January of this year and rated the Trust overall as Good. This was an improvement on the last inspection in 2015 when the Trust was rated as Requires Improvement.
As part of a joint inquiry into children and young people's mental health, the Health and Education Committees found that financial pressures are restricting the provision of mental health services in schools and colleges. The next Government must review the effect of the budget reductions in the education sector, the report adds.
A south east London trust that specialises in mental health care and community services has been rated Good overall by the Care Quality Commission.
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust was re-inspected between 27 February and 1 March 2017, following an inspection in April 2016 when it was rated Requires Improvement.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today (Friday, June 2) published its report on the trust, which provides mental health services in Sussex and specialist community mental health services for children and young people in Hampshire and Kent and Medway. These include two adult social care services and primary medical services for HMP Lewes and HMP Ford.
First reading took place on 10 July. This stage is a formality that signals the start of the Bill's journey through the Lords.
Second reading - the general debate on all aspects of the Bill - is yet to be scheduled.
This was the most common known reason for issuing a fit note, new experimental figures from NHS Digital have revealed.
Anonymised4 information covering GP practices has been collected for the first time. These practices are responsible for around two-thirds of working age patients5 registered with a GP in England.
Levels of mental illness, mental distress and low wellbeing among students in higher education in the UK are increasing, and are high relative to other sections of the population.
For the last three years Bodmin Hospital supported by Home Treatment Teams at the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has facilitated week long placements for local Student Police Officers.
Better technology means courts are punishing drug drive offenders in record numbers.
Drug drive test.
Tough new drug driving laws are now taking more dangerous drivers off roads, with conviction rates for the new drug driving offence at 98%.
As Birmingham and Solihull join the Integrated Personal Commissioning Programme (IPC), John Short explains why he believes IPC will work well for people with enduring mental health needs, as a way to offer people the flexibility they need to find their own route to recovery.
The Government must prioritise a clear implementation strategy and increase support for public mental health and early intervention services if it is to bring down the unacceptable suicide rate, says the Health Committee in its interim report into suicide prevention.
The Prime Minister, Theresa May, today (Monday 9 January) delivered the annual Charity Commission Lecture where she announced a series of measures to "transform mental health support".
As part of this, she has asked the Care Quality Commission to lead "a major thematic review of children and adolescent mental health services across the country" to identify what is working well and what is not.
CQC will take forward this work in discussion with other agencies and inspectorates, and expects to report on its findings in 2017/18.
England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has told Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust that, although it has made significant progress since CQC’s last inspection, it must make further improvements to the quality of its services following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Responding to the Care Quality Commission’s re-inspection report, Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive at West London Mental Health NHS Trust said:
“This re-inspection report clearly highlights the huge range of improvements that our staff have worked tirelessly to put in place. From our new Thames Lodge medium secure unit to improvements in staff morale, reduction and review of restrictive practices and work to improve the assessment, monitoring and treatment of our patients’ physical health.
NHS England’s National Director for Mental Health, Claire Murdoch, takes a look at the progress made in the first year of the Five Year Forward View programme.
Southern Health is set to host the first Arts and Film Festival for local people living with mental illness. It has been organised by Jane Collard, a peer support worker based at Southampton’s mental health inpatient hospital Antelope House.
People with long-term mental health needs are facing stays of many years in inpatient services because of a lack of community services to help them to recover, according to a briefing paper published today by Centre for Mental Health.
The Royal Colleges of GPs (RCGP), Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), and Psychiatrists (RCPsych) have committed to five shared principles that they hope will lead to tangible actions to improve the care and support of children and young people (CYP) with mental health problems.
Home News Press Releases CQC calls for action to end missed opportunities to learn from patient deaths
CQC calls for action to end missed opportunities to learn from patient deaths
Published:
13 December 2016
Categories:
Media
A national review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that the NHS is missing opportunities to learn from patient deaths and that too many families are not being included or listened to when an investigation happens.
In the face of increased demand for care and constrained finances, while the Better Care Fund, the principal integration initiative, has improved joint working, it has not yet achieved its potential. The Fund has not achieved the expected value for money, in terms of savings, outcomes for patients or reduced hospital activity, from the £5.3 billion spent through the Fund in 2015-16.
England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has upgraded the rating of Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust from Requires Improvement to Good following a comprehensive inspection by the CQC in September 2016
England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has upgraded the rating of Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust from Requires Improvement to Good following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in October 2016.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors have updated ratings for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust following an inspection in November 2016, rating us as Good across all categories.
The Health and Education Committees hear from a former Government mental health champion in the final session of their joint inquiry into the role of education in preventing mental health problems in children and young people. The Committees also hear from Lord Layard, who is advising the Government over its trial of weekly mindfulness classes in 26 schools, Ministers and NHS representatives.
Data from report is translated onto a map showing 'unacceptably high' level of early deaths in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin and 'as expected' in Staffordshire.
NHS England’s moratorium on commissioning new specialised mental health services helped deliver new demand and a return to real terms growth for independent providers, according to new research. Please contact the library to receive a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
A mental health trust has halted a controversial recruitment scheme, in which nursing staff were offered the chance to sacrifice pension contributions in return for better pay. (Oxleas)
CQC is carrying out a review of how NHS trusts identify, report, investigate and learn from deaths of people using their services.
This follows a request from the Secretary of State for Health, which was part of the Government’s response to a report into the deaths of people with a learning disability or mental health problem in contact with Southern Health Foundation NHS foundation Trust.
CQC’s review will consider the quality of practice in relation to identifying, reporting and investigating the death of any person in contact with a health service managed by an NHS trust; whether the person is in hospital, receiving care in a community setting or living in their own home. The review will pay particular attention to how NHS trusts investigate and learn from deaths of people with a learning disability or mental health problem.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust has completed the acquisition of Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to establish a centre of excellence for learning disabilities.
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and East London NHS Foundation Trust have become the first two NHS mental health trusts in England to be awarded overall ratings of outstanding, as detailed in inspection reports published today (Thursday 1 September).
A joint report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and eight partner colleges and bodies has been published today.
The report, "Improving the physical health of adults with severe mental illness: essential actions" was written in partnership with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal Colleges of General Practitioners, Nursing, Pathologists, Physicians, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Public Health England.
It sets out the essential actions to improve the physical health of adults with severe mental illness (SMI) across the NHS. The report makes practical recommendations for changes that will help adults with SMI to receive the same standards of physical healthcare as the general population and reduce the risk of premature death.
£2.1 billion has been allocated this year to a Sustainability and Transformation Fund (STF), which ministers said would enable the NHS to transform services and meet the ambitions set out in the Forward View. However, £1.8 billion of this funding is being used to reduce deficits among NHS providers, leaving just £300 million to invest in new services this year.
Bradford District Care is opening first overnight service for CYP in crisis - aim is to reduce children with mental health issues presenting at A&E and also to roll out across W Yorks STP area. Please contact the library to receive a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Infographic with some quick figures about mental health in the UK, including the impact on business. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
The UK government has been urged to launch an investigation into the provision of mental healthcare in England, after new figures showed that the number of reports of patients dying unexpectedly has risen 21% over the past three years. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Older patients and people with long term conditions and mental health problems will be among the first to benefit from a major new drive to modernise how the NHS delivers care.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos today (Friday 22nd), NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens will launch the first wave of NHS Innovation ‘Test Beds’.
These collaborations between the NHS and innovators – including Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), IBM and Philips – aim to harness technology to address some of the most complex issues facing patients and the health service.
Frontline health and care workers in seven areas will pioneer and evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and ways of working which will help patients stay well and monitor their conditions themselves at home.
The Royal College of GPs has responded to a column published in the Evening Standard last week, written by Nick Clegg MP, that claimed GPs are not trained to spot and respond to mental health problems as part of their qualifications. The following letter has been published by the Standard today.
Dear sir,
We were extremely disappointed to read that Nick Clegg is so ill-informed about the role of GPs and the services we provide for patients with mental health problems.
GPs take mental health very seriously; it is key part of the RCGP training curriculum and all GP trainees must demonstrate competence of this in order to practise independently in the UK......................
Two major UK charities have announced £100m of new partnership funding for the UK’s first Dementia Research Institute – one of the single biggest financial commitments to dementia research in the history of both charities. Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK have pledged £50m each towards the work of the Institute, led by the Medical Research Council, making the total commitment over a quarter of a billion pounds.
News from our partners West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police
New legislation covering psychoactive substances, often referred to as so-called ‘legal highs’, comes into effect this Thursday (26 May 2016), with offenders potentially facing up to seven years in prison.
The Psychoactive Substances Act will provide a blanket ban on the production, supply and importation of psychoactive substances; that is, any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. Legitimate substances, such as food, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, caffeine and medical products, are excluded.
Wirral Community NHS Trust and Mersey Care NHS Trust in the North West have been authorised as foundation trusts by new regulator NHS Improvement, effective from 1 May.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said:
“It’s great to see two more trusts being given foundation trust status particularly in community healthcare and secure services. Mersey Care is the second provider of high secure services to become a foundation trust. This follows the recent confirmations of Birmingham Community Healthcare and Sussex Community as foundation trusts showing that foundation trust status remains a legitimate and sensible aspiration for NHS trusts.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today publishes the findings of a short-notice, focussed inspection of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, conducted over four days in January 2016.
The Lister House Partnership, which provides GP services in Wiveliscombe and Milverton, has transferred its management to Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the county’s provider of community, mental health and learning disability services.
The arrangement was made when the previous GP partners of Lister House approached Somerset Partnership as they were leaving or retiring and could not recruit any new GPs to fill the vacancies.
In a new report, the Committee concludes that while the Government has a "laudable ambition" to improve these services, "we are sceptical about whether this is affordable, or achievable without compromising other services".
The Committee finds pressure on the NHS budget will make it very difficult to achieve 'parity of esteem' between mental and physical health and that this is a task "for the whole of government".
Two of Derbyshire’s NHS Foundation Trusts, which provide physical and mental health care to the county’s residents, have signalled an initial intention to merge and form a single body, in order to provide better care to local patients.
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (DHCFT) and Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS) have recently considered different ways in which the two Trusts can collaborate in order to provide greater benefits to local people, in respect of continuity of care and the alignment of physical and mental health needs.
On Thursday (28 October) the two Trust Boards agreed to further explore a preferred option for the two organisations to fully merge, through acquisition, with DCHS being the acquiring organisation. Whilst it is required that one Trust leads the transactional process in this way, the spirit of the collaboration would be to merge and create a new, single organisation.
On Tuesday 15 November, the Communications Committee inquiry into children and the internet examines issues surrounding mental health, as well as the suitability of material online. The Committee puts questions to mental health experts, as well as content monitoring bodies the Advertising Standards Agency and the British Board of Film Classification.
Inpatients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under the Mental Health Act 1983 and patients subject to Supervised Community Treatment is a detailed study based on information from organisations in England which provide Mental Health Services and make use of the Mental Health Act 1983 legislation, as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007.
The Education Policy Institute’s Independent Commission on Children and Young People’s Mental Health has released a new report, Time to Deliver, which calls for a new ‘Prime Minister’s Challenge’ on children and young people’s mental health.
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Almost a billion pounds of investment, targeted support for new mums and the first ever waiting time targets for teenagers with eating disorders, will all be announced by the Prime Minister today as he uses a keynote speech to take on the taboo of poor mental health and transform services across the country.
The announcements will come as part of a speech focused on the government’s plans to transform people’s life chances and begin a new approach to put a stop to poverty.
Marguerite Regan, the Mental Health Foundation’s Policy Manager, sets out why today’s speech by the Prime Minister highlights that mental health has risen up the policy agenda but represents a missed opportunity to underline the importance of prevention.
Delayed transfers of care occur when a person remains in a hospital or a mental health bed for longer than they clinically need to be there. This is a growing problem for the NHS. In mental health, the latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that, in October 2015, there were 23,321 ‘bed days’ - about 3% of all bed days that month - lost through delayed transfers of care in mental health settings. Analyses of available data have estimated that delayed transfers in mental health affect about 6,000 service users, absorb one in 20 bed days and cost the NHS £2 million a year.
Academics from across Australia, Wales and England will join with University Centre Shrewsbury (UCS) tutors to launch their new book which provides an introduction to mental health at each stage of life.
The publishing of Mental Health Across the Lifespan will be celebrated at a free event on Tuesday 8 March 2016, held in partnership with Routledge Publishers at UCS’ learning and research base.
People are invited to Guildhall in Frankwell Quay to hear from seven of the authors who have contributed to the book, representing a diverse range of expertise.
A High Court judge has authorised the discharge of a 28 year old woman with anorexia nervosa into the community after 10 years of inpatient treatment failed to stop her starving herself. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
PERFORMANCE: Older people’s mental health wards across Sussex require improvement, according to the Care Quality Commission. Please contact the library to receive a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
It’s been nearly five years since the horrific abuse at Winterbourne View was uncovered by the BBC’s Panorama. Since then, the Government and NHS England have outlined new plans to reduce the number of people on the autism spectrum and with learning disabilities who are in inappropriate inpatient units in England, but progress has been frustratingly slow. A new independent report released today says the scale of the challenge may be greater than first thought and calls on the Government to appoint a Learning Disability Commissioner to secure the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
People using mental health services should get access to high quality housing support when they need it, says a report published today by Centre for Mental Health.
More than shelter, by Dr Jed Boardman, reviews evidence about the provision of supported housing services for people with mental health problems in England. The report highlights the significant links between housing and mental wellbeing, indicating that factors such as overcrowding, insufficient daylight and fear of crime all contribute to poorer mental health.
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) is embarking on a new era in their quality improvement journey.
BEH is teaming up with Haelo, the Innovation and Improvement Science Centre founded at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, (SRFT) as part of their world-renowned quality improvement programme.