Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust rated as ‘Good’ by Care Quality Commission
Our CQC report has been published following the inspection which took place last year and we have maintained our overall rating of ‘GOOD’. We also received individual ratings for each of our core service lines; achieving ‘Good’ ratings for six core services, ‘Requires Improvement’ for two core services and an ‘Outstanding’ rating for our substance misuse services.
During their inspection, the CQC team noted many positives which we are rightly proud of. They noted that staff treat patients with compassion and kindness, and respect their privacy and dignity. They recognise that staff involve service users in care planning and risk assessment and that we actively seek feedback on the quality of care provided. As co-production is at the heart of our approach to care, we are extremely pleased that the CQC recognised this.
The CQC also commented that we engage constructively with staff and that we have an open and transparent culture where staff are encouraged to raise concerns and feel able to do so. It is vitally important that we continue to improve our services for all of our service users and our working environments for staff, so the fact that staff feel able to speak up is extremely reassuring.
We were also really pleased to see our research work being commended. The CQC commented on the high level of research activity taking place and our aim for services to be academically informed.
The CQC highlighted a number of areas of ‘Outstanding’ practice, including our Safewards programme, our new mental health service for Greater Manchester University students and our partnership approach with housing providers.
As anticipated, we have further work to do in the ‘Safe’ domain where we received a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’. The dormitory-style accommodation of Park House was identified as an area for improvement, as were waiting times in CAMHS and risk assessments within adult community services. We also need to establish more effective processes for ensuring compliance with our supervision standards.
We are already making progress in each of these areas - we have been awarded £72.3million capital investment to re-build Park House and provide a much more modern, therapeutic environment. We will be launching our new Supervision Policy across the Trust support managers and staff to ensure this important process takes place. We are also embedding our redesign of adult community services in Manchester and supporting the development of the Bolton community CAMHS services we acquired in 2018.
With the implementation of our new five-year Strategy and our Quality Improvement agenda, we will be able to build on this ‘Good’ foundation and improve our services even more.
Click here to read the full report.
