CQC recognises “significant improvements” at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | News and events

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised the significant improvements taking place at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) following a well-led assessment.

The report, published today, gives the Trust a well-led rating of requires improvement following the assessment which took place in May. It is the first time that NSFT has received a well-led rating under the CQC's new single assessment framework.

The Trust has made significant progress since its last inspection and scored 59% overall, which is close to achieving a good well-led rating. The CQC thresholds for each segment are:

• 25 to 38% inadequate
• 39 to 62% requires improvement
• 63% to 87% good
• Over 87% outstanding

The report highlights several areas of good practice, which include:

• the Trust's passionate, hard-working and committed staff, who also told inspectors they felt services are improving
• the substantive appointments which have been made to the Board, in turn bringing stability and experience from high performing organisations
• the Trust has a clear vision, values and strategy
• significant change has been delivered in the last year
• the Board is focused on improving culture and inclusion
• a new locality model has been introduced
• leaders act with integrity, credibility and respect
• an increased focus on working with service users and carers, across transformation programmes and through the creation of a new Service User and Carer Council
• staff reported feeling safe raising patient safety concerns and confident they would be acted on
• significant increase in staffing in the last 12 months
• sustained reduction in restraints
• the robust reporting systems which have been introduced to make sure all deaths are appropriately recorded with family
• involvement with high confidence in mortality reporting
• the Trust's new governance structure, which provides a robust framework with clearer lines of accountability
• marked improvements in partnership working and stakeholder relationships
• strong clinical leadership which is in place and
• the Trust's innovative approach to sustainability

Staff were described as kind, non-judgmental and genuinely invested in the wellbeing of service users. Inspectors also noted improvements in the Friends and Family Test results, including a 50% rise in response rates and ratings of 'good' or 'very good' increasing by 33% over the past two years. Ratings of 'poor' or 'very poor' had reduced by 57% over the same timeframe.

However, the CQC also noted areas for improvement. These included:

• tackling remaining pockets of poor culture. This includes improving the experience of disabled and Black, Asian and ethnic
• minority staff and service users.
• further rebuilding staff confidence to ensure they feel safe and confident to speak up and raise concerns, and assured that action will be taken
• reducing the time it takes to respond to complaints and complete patient safety investigations
• ensuring senior leaders are more visible to staff
• improving medicines support for community teams
• further developing the role of Governors
• some partners felt there was more to do to embed changes and further develop relationships

Further improvement has taken place during the five months since the CQC carried out the inspection. This includes the Trust's ongoing staff-led transformation programme called Listening into Action, which is helping to improve the working environment and culture at the Trust.

In addition, NSFT's Freedom to Speak Up function has been brought in-house to make it as easy as possible for staff to raise concerns, while additional feedback mechanisms for staff have also been introduced.

The Board also has a clear workforce race equality improvement plan, including acting on the findings of a report published in May, which NSFT commissioned to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of its Black, Asian and ethnic minority staff.

Caroline Donovan, Chief Executive Officer at NSFT, said: This well-led assessment highlights several key areas of sustained improvement and shows the large-scale transformation which is taking place at NSFT is beginning to reap positive results.

We are particularly pleased that the inspectors have once again recognised the hard work and dedication of our staff and their commitment to the individuals and communities we serve.

We know we still have much more to do to deliver consistent good quality mental health services and were already taking action to address many of the areas for focus highlighted by the CQC. Improving our culture is one of our strategic priorities, while we have renewed our commitment to enhancing the experiences which staff from an ethnic minority background have when they come to work. In addition, we are also taking positive steps to ensure we respond to more complaints within our target timeframe while making it easier for staff to raise concerns.

We look forward to working closely together to continue to drive these improvements and build on the solid foundations which we have already put in place so that we can consistently provide safer, kinder, better services for our communities.

Zoë Billingham, NSFT Chair, said: This is a strong report for the Trust which contains some real positives. It recognises significant areas of improvement, and we are on the cusp of being rated good.

I am delighted that the CQC recognised the significant improvements in partnership working as well as the progress we have made involving service users carers and families across our improvement programme. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our staff for their hard work.

We are not complacent, and we continue to work closely with our service users, families, carers and partners across Norfolk and Suffolk, to make sure our local communities receive the safer, kinder and better mental health services they rightly deserve.

The well-led report has been published shortly after reports looking at NSFT's community services for adults of a working age, which were given an improved rating of 'good', and its crisis services, which were rated 'requires improvement'. For more information, click here.

To view the full well-led report, visit www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RMY