Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust '˜requires improvement'Â

Improvements need to be made at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust after a heath watchdog highlighted a number of failings.Â
Kevan Taylor.Kevan Taylor.
Kevan Taylor.

The Care Quality Commission rated the trust as '˜Requires Improvement' '“ a demotion on its previous rating as '˜Good', following an inspection in May and June. 

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Kevan Taylor.Kevan Taylor.
Kevan Taylor.

A report said the service needs to improve safety and there were concerns about how well-led it is.

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However, the trust was still rated as good in other categories including '˜caring, effectiveness and responsiveness.'

Dr Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector for hospitals and lead for mental health, said: 'We last inspected Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust in November 2016 when we rated them as Good overall.

'Since that inspection, the trust has gone through a reconfiguration of services and the implementation of a new management structure. We concluded that, during this period, the senior leadership of the trust did not recognise a deterioration in safety of services. This is reflected in our changing the rating for well led from Good to Requires Improvement.'

He added: 'Staff on some wards had not identified the risks that features of the ward environment might pose to patient safety. The trust was frequently reliant on bank and agency staff to maintain safe staffing numbers and there were not always enough staff on duty trained in the use of physical interventions.'

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But he added improvements had been made in some areas and described the community-based mental health services for older people as 'outstanding.' 

Kevan Taylor, chief executive of the trust, said: 'While we are disappointed that our overall rating has gone down, we are confident that work is already in place to address the issues identified in the inspection report.'

He said in many cases issues have already been resolved and added: 'We are working collaboratively with staff and key stakeholders on our action plan which will be published in due course on our website.'