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CQC rates NELFT services as Good

18/01/2018

18 January 2018

Press Release

CQC rates NELFT services as Good

NELFT today (18 January 2018) welcomed the publication of the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) report into our services following the Well-Led Review late in 2017. We are delighted with the new overall rating of 'Good' as this reflects the improvements we have made over the last 18 months to move from our previous 'Requires Improvement' rating.

John Brouder, NELFT chief executive, said: "I am proud of the dedication and commitment of all our staff who have been working hard to continuously improve the services we provide and this is recognised in our CQC rating of Good. We strive to deliver the best care by the best people and this is a significant step towards our overall ambition to be rated as outstanding.

"It is tremendously important for us to reflect on our achievements and improvements across the Trust, but I am conscious that we must not rest on our laurels. We want to ensure we deliver consistently high-quality care across the communities we serve and we are continuing on our improvement journey.

"I would like to thank every member of staff who has helped us to reach this point and I know their passion for delivering the best possible patient care has now been recognised by our regulator."

The CQC inspectors found that the Trust had implemented a comprehensive improvement plan and taken action to meet the requirement notices and enforcement action after the inspection in April 2016. This has resulted in 13 core services being rated as 'Good', Brookside, our CAMHS inpatient service, has been rated as 'Outstanding' and only one of our services rated as 'Requires Improvement' (our mental health inpatient wards for adults).

The Inspectors said the most significant improvement was for child and adolescent mental health inpatient wards at Brookside where, in an 18-month period, the ratings for the service had improved from Inadequate to Outstanding. The CQC said: "the Trust had shown vision and strong leadership in reviewing the model of the service being provided."

In addition, the CQC stated the Trust has stable leadership through the Board and the executive leadership team who had an appropriate range of skills, knowledge and experience.

They also said "the Trust is making good use of IT and promoting mobile working. The systems also promoted access at different levels of the organisation to timely information on performance."

Joe Fielder, NELFT Chair, said: "Moving from a CQC rating of Requires Improvement to Good in a relatively short space of time demonstrates the actions we have taken across the Trust to make improvements. This is important recognition as it reassures our local communities that we are delivering high-quality care.

"As well as the incredible efforts of all our staff, I would also like to recognise the contribution of our patients, Governors, commissioners and our local health and social care partners, who have supported us to achieve a Good rating.

"As Chair of the Trust, I am heartened by the outcome of the latest CQC inspection and look forward to ensuring that we work towards an Outstanding rating in the future."

The CQC's Deputy Chief Inspector (Mental Health), Paul Lelliott, said "There was evidence of some fine improvements to the standard of care at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We found one area of Outstanding service in the trust's child and adolescent mental health inpatient wards.

"While there are some areas where improvements still need to be made generally I am pleased with the progress made here and want to see it to continue in the future."

You can read the report in full by going to http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RAT on the CQC website.

END

Notes to editors:

1. For more information please contact the communications team at NELFT NHS Foundation Trust on 0300 555 1299 or email communications@nelft.nhs.uk

2. NELFT provides an extensive range of community and mental health services for people living in Essex, Kent and Medway and the London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

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