Issue - meetings

The Chief Executive of the Leicestershire Partnership Trust submits a report that advises of the outcomes following the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection of the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) undertaken 9 October - 21 November 2017. The Commission is invited to note and comment as it sees fit.

The Chief Executive of the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) submitted a report that advised of the outcomes following the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection of the LPT which was undertaken 9 October -- 21 November 2017.

Dr Peter Miller, the Chief Executive and Ms Liz Rowbotham, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the LPT Quality Assurance Committee were in attendance to present the report and respond to comments and queries from Members.  Dr Miller explained that as part of its new regime, the CQC carried out inspections every year and chose five services to inspect, based on a risk based approach. For example, services that were judged to be inadequate would be inspected every year; services that were judged to require improvement, would be inspected every two years.

The Chair referred to the inspection report and expressed concerns at the number of recurring themes that were being highlighted by the CQC as areas for improvement.

Dr Miller explained that the CQC had found some improvement in each of the services they had inspected. The Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service (CAMHS) had been rated as inadequate at the previous inspection but had improved since then. However, it was recognised that the service needed to improve further. The core child mental health services were in demand and currently there were about 1000 children waiting to be seen; but there were being monitored in a regular way which was why the service was judged to be improving. A Member expressed concerns that with as many as 1000 children waiting to be seen, it was unlikely that CAMHS would receive a good rating at the next inspection.  Members heard that other improvements also included progress in addressing ligature points.

Dr Miller also referred to the areas that the CQC had highlighted as requiring improvements. These included issues with staffing levels and high case-loads in community teams, significant levels of agency staff and issues around clinical supervision as the LPT was not meeting its own targets. The CQC had also highlighted for improvement the two and four bedroom dormitories in mental health wards, but significant investment was required to change those environments.  Members heard that there would be a new children’s mental health unit on the Glenfield Site which would prevent children going out of the area for treatment.

In response to the CQC findings, a new Action Plan had been drawn up; Members received an update on this from Ms Rowbotham. Members heard that a local leader was responsible for managing the actions within the plan and committees had been assigned to each action. Any actions from the previous plan which had not been signed off had been incorporated into the new Action Plan.  In response to a query, Members heard that the format of the plan looked very similar to the previous plan and would mainly focus on the ‘must do’ items. The ‘should do’ items were being tracked by the relevant director and would not be forgotten.

A Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72