Staff member speaks out after Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust given lowest rating

That is the damming verdict of one member of staff at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust after it received the lowest possible score following an unannounced independent inspection.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) – the independent regulator of health and social care services in England – has recommended the trust is placed into special measures.

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services, including inpatient services, to people in the city.

The member of staff, who wished to remain anonymous, works at the Michael Carlisle Centre in Nether Edge, which is run by the trust. The Star has verified her employment.

They said: “I have seen incidents of patients being put at risk by shared dorms on the mental health wards. It should be single rooms.

“There’s a lot of episodes of violence which aren’t handled that well. From patients to staff and patients to patients.”

The CQC report rated the trust’s wards for older people with mental health problems and acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units as inadequate.

It also found both safety and leadership to be inadequate, with “several sexual safety incidents” and patients smoking on hospital wards. Staff were also found to have used non-approved restraint techniques in acute wards and the psychiatric intensive care unit.

The staff member added: “It feels like there’s a risk of people coming to more harm when they are in the trust rather than outside.”

Cost-saving measures at the trust have harmed the quality of care provided, the staff member said.

“There’s now a lot of pressure on beds and to discharge patients really quickly after they get admitted.

“The trust is very interested in saving money. They told us it was the least in debt in the country. That’s come at a cost of lots of services being reduced and things being closed down. They are putting the finances in front of patient care.”

When asked if the inadequate rating came as a surprise, the staff member said: “Not at all. The inspectors came back a few weeks later after their first visit in January so we knew something was up.

“The previous inspection they had almost failed. There was a feeling the trust was in a bad place.”

Before January’s inspection, the trust was last inspected in 2018 when it was rated as Requires Improvement overall.

They added: “Morale is quite low. It feels like a bit of a culture where staff can’t speak out when they see things going wrong.”

The CQC report said the trust “continued to report high levels of staff sickness and poor staff retention.” Inspectors found that while the majority of staff were aware of how to contact a service that allows them to raise concerns – the Speak Up Guardian - some did not know how to use this and the whistle-blowing process.

Discussing the mental health impact of their experience, the member of staff said: “It’s definitely been bad for my mental health. I feel unsupported by the trust.”

Jan Ditheridge, chief executive of Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “This member of staff is right in that our acute inpatient areas are really challenging by nature, because they care for our most ill service users. This has not been made any easier by the fact that we have staffing vacancies and some gaps due to sickness absence. We know our environments need upgrading to support more therapeutic care. These are all things we are supporting staff with and were identified in the CQC inspection report.

“We have not made financial cuts and we do not use volunteers instead of paid staff.

“I would like to add that our staff have been tremendous in supporting our most ill patients through the coronavirus pandemic and they have achieved great things supported by many others in the organisation.

“The CQC observed that generally our staff feel able to report concerns and feel listened to - it's our ambition that is the experience for every member of staff.”