CQC’s praise for NSFT staff as improvements recognised

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised the significant improvements which Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has made to ensure its community and crisis services are delivering safer, kinder, better care for local people.

The Trust's community mental health services for adults of a working age have been given an overall rating of 'good', with 'good' ratings in four of the five domains for 'effective', 'caring', 'responsive' and 'well-led'. This is a significant improvement from when the service was last inspected in 2022, when it was given an overall rating of 'requires improvement' in the CQC's report published in 2023, along with 'requires improvement' ratings in the 'safe', 'responsive' and 'well-led' domains:

Community mental health services for adults of a working age
Domain	2023 report	2025 report
Safe	Requires improvement	Requires improvement
Effective	Good	Good
Caring	Good	Good
Responsive	Requires improvement	Good
Well-led	Requires improvement	Good
Overall rating	Requires improvement	Good

The Trust's mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety received an overall rating of 'requires improvement', with 'good' ratings in three of the five domains for 'effective', 'caring' and 'well-led'. This again shows improvement from the last CQC inspection in 2022, when only the caring domain had a rating of 'good', and 'safe', 'effective' 'responsive' and 'well-led' were rated as 'requires improvement' in the report published in 2023.

Mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety
Domain	2023 report	2025 report
Safe	Requires improvement	Requires improvement
Effective	Requires improvement	Good
Caring	Good	Good
Responsive	Requires improvement	Requires improvement
Well-led	Requires improvement	Good
Overall rating	Requires improvement	Requires improvement

In its report, the CQC commended staff working in adult community mental health services for treating service users as individuals and focusing on continuous learning, innovation and improvement. Inspectors also noted NSFT's positive culture of safety and lessons learnt and described safeguarding processes as well embedded.

Feedback given to the CQC by service users and carers was also positive, with the community services report stating:

Overall, carers felt updated and involved in care decisions.
Most carers and people who used services described the service as effective and some people said the service was 'amazing'.
Most carers and people who used services commented that the staff were professional, caring and friendly.
Most people and carers felt listened to and treated with kindness, compassion and dignity.
Some people and carers told us staff promoted independence and provided a 'helpful and positive patient experience'.

The CQC also highlighted several areas for improvement for adult community services, which included that unsuitable clinic rooms were being used for therapy while mandatory training in some areas fell below the expected levels. Inspectors also said the service did not always involve people in planning or make sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people's needs, capacities and preferences. The Trust is now developing an action plan to address these findings.

Staff in the crisis services were praised for their commitment to safety and for treating service users with kindness, empathy and compassion. Inspectors also highlighted the introduction of a 24-hour urgent mental health helpline, the steps which are being taken to look after service users' physical health and the accuracy of data which is used to monitor the effectiveness of services as particular areas of improvement.

Feedback for the crisis service included:

"People told us staff were discreet and respectful and provided them with help and emotional support."
"14 out of 17 people who used services told us staff supported them to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition and met their needs."
"Feedback from carers was overwhelmingly positive about staff attitudes and behaviours. They told us staff understood their relative's individual needs and they had been involved in meetings or reviews about their relative's care."

Areas for crisis services to improve included making sure outside space is provided for people using the health-based place of safety at the Woodlands Unit in Ipswich. Work is already taking place to address this.

Staffing levels were also highlighted as an area for focus as vacancy rates stood at 20.2% at the time of the inspection. Following recruitment, this had reduced to 11.9% by the end of July. Inspectors also said NSFT must do more to make sure emergency referrals are assessed within four hours, and the Trust is now developing an action plan in response.

Caroline Donovan, Chief Executive Officer at NSFT, said: These are the most positive CQC reports which our Trust has received in a decade. They are a testament to the dedication of our staff, who work incredibly hard every day to deliver high quality services to our local communities and have focused relentlessly on making improvements.

The inspectors recognised that our teams place service users and their carers at the heart of everything they do and treat them with compassion and kindness. The feedback received from people using our services was especially positive, and shows our staff treat people with dignity and respect.

We are proud that these reports have acknowledged the significant improvements we have made. However, we also recognise we have more to do to ensure we are consistently providing safer, kinder and better services to everyone who needs our support.

NSFT's Chair, Zoë Billingham CBE, said: I would like to thank staff in our community and crisis teams and our health-based places of safety team for their hard work in driving these improvements forward. Their efforts are being reflected in services across the Trust as we work together to achieve a lasting and positive change for the people of Norfolk and Suffolk.

While we recognise that we still have a lot more work to do, we hope these reports illustrates our determination to work alongside our partners to make further improvements for the people who need us.

Dr Ed Garratt, Chief Executive of the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board and interim Chief Executive of NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB, said: These CQC reports are a really important step forward for the Trust. They reflect the improvement in leadership we have seen since Caroline Donovan's arrival. It is vital now to sustain the improvement by building on the positive momentum evidenced in these reports.

To view the full reports, visit www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RMY