Leeds mental health trust '˜must improve'

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the second time in two years.

Following an inspection in July, the newly-published report says the trust is good at providing services that are caring and responsive but improvements are needed to offer safe, effective and well-led services.

Dr Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector of hospitals and CQC lead for mental health, said: “The quality of the services provided by the trust varied. There was some good practice, particularly in respect of staff recruitment and reducing ligature risks. We were also impressed with the quality of the community mental health services for children and adolescents, which we rated as outstanding.

“However, there remain a number of areas where the trust still needs to take action from the 2014 inspection and additional actions we identified as result of this latest inspection.”

Inspectors could see that staff were respectful, caring and compassionate, but issues included that not enough staff had undergone appraisals and there were concerns over mixed sex accommodation in one inpatient service.

Dr Sara Munro, chief executive of LYPFT, said: “Whilst our overall rating has not changed, we’ve been given an overall rating of good for being caring and responsive which is an improvement on last time. “It’s also important to look at the detailed picture across our core services which shows we’ve come a long way in two years.

“I’d like to pay tribute to our staff who’ve worked very hard to make the improvements we’ve seen in the CQC’s reports. There is a lot they can be proud of in these reports and there are some very positive comments from service users, carers and families too.

“Congratulations to our Deaf Child and Adolescent Mental Health service who have received an outstanding rating, and well done to our older peoples’ mental health wards in Leeds who’ve made a lot of improvements over the last two years and got a rating they thoroughly deserve.”

Work is underway to address the points raised by inspectors.

* A Leeds unit for older people with mental health issues has improved, according to the report.

Four wards for older people at The Mount in Leeds City Centre, two of which care for people with dementia, had previously been rated inadequate by the CQC when the last inspection results were published in January 2015.

The unit has now been judged as ‘good’.

In the latest report, patients and relatives spoke highly about the staff and the care and support they gave.

Paul Exley, matron for Older Peoples’ Inpatient Services at LYPFT, said: “This is a great result and a testament to the hard work that our staff and the trust has put in to improve services for older people in Leeds.

“We take great pride in our work. After all, these people could be our own relatives so we always aim for high standards of dignity and respect for our patients.

“Reading some of the comments from patients, relatives and carers is really heart-warming and I’m truly proud of my team.”