ENGLAND’S Chief Inspector of Hospitals has told Surrey and Borders Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust that it must make improvements to some services following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

Overall, the trust has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ for providing safe and well-led services, and rated ‘good’ for being caring, effective and responsive to people’s needs.

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and CQC’s lead for mental health), Dr Paul Lelliott, said: “Since our previous inspection two years ago, the trust has carried out a comprehensive review of its inpatient mental health services and health based places of safety.

“The trust has closed wards and units that were not safe or no longer suitable and has opened new facilities in their place. We have rated seven of the nine mental health core services provided by the trust as ‘good’.

“The trust has improved patients’ access to physical healthcare and is better at monitoring the physical health of people who use its mental health services. It has also improved waiting times for people who use its community mental health services.

“However, the trust board did not have a good enough oversight of incidents which they should be learning from.

“The CQC has inspected 11 care homes managed by the trust and rated six of these as ‘requires improvement’.

“We will be working with the trust to agree an action plan to assist them in improving the standards of care and treatment.”

A team of CQC inspectors, specialist advisors visited hospital and community services provided by Surrey and Borders Partnerships Foundation Trust during March 2016.

The trust had carried out a comprehensive review of its inpatient services and health-based places of safety since the last inspection.

But inspectors found the trust’s governance processes did not ensure that incidents were reported or that staff learned from incidents, complaints or patient feedback.

It was clear that the board did not have a thorough oversight of incidents and complaints.

Inspectors found there were weaknesses in the trust’s oversight of its care homes for people with a learning disability - six of the trust’s care homes have been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by separate CQC inspections in the past year.

There was inconsistent medicines management practice across the trust. There were controlled drugs discrepancies on two wards and out-of-date drugs on three wards and in three wards liquid medicines and creams did not have opened dates recorded.

The trust has set up initiatives to provide training for new staff and newly-qualified staff to help provide them with support opportunities.

The report identified a number of areas of good practice including the specialist community child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) whichhad developed an effective partnership with an independent patient-led organisation, the CAMHS Youth Advisors, which provides induction training to help staff understand the experience of patients, provides patient representatives on interview panels, and was consulted on the design of new buildings for children’s services.