Agenda item

18.1     The Committee considered a report by the Assistant Chief Executive summarising the recent CQC Report on Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT) services and SPFTs Action Plan developed in response to the report.

18.2     In addition to the report by Colm Donaghy, Chief Executive of SPFT, the following points were made in response to Members’ questions:

·        SPFT was in the process of developing its Strategic Plan at the time of the CQC inspection in January 2015. The CQC recognised that the Plan was in development, but indicated that they would comment on the current situation and so reported that SPFT “lacked strategic direction” at the time of the inspection.

·        Wards for People with Learning Disabilities were rated as inadequate for effectiveness because of the performance of the 11-bed Seldon Centre in Worthing. The CQC noted in their inspection that the way that staff were treating patients at the Centre was causing risk. SPFT has now carried out the necessary training to address staff practices and the Centre has improved as a result. The Centre does not require capital investment in order to improve.

·        Long Stay/Rehabilitation Mental Health Wards for Working Age Adults were rated inadequate on safety grounds because of one facility: Hanover Crescent in Brighton, which is now closed. Hanover Crescent was a community rehabilitation facility where patients were stepped down in preparation for community living. SPFT procured the facility several years ago and safety regulations have been tightened in the intervening period. Consequently, the facility was deemed to have had too many ligature points to be deemed safe, although there had not been any serious incidents at the facility. SPFT could not put this right without major capital investment, so the decision was made to close the facility.

·        Wards for Older People with Mental Health Problems were rated inadequate on safety grounds primarily due to dementia inpatient beds in East Sussex. SPFT has proposals in place to ensure that the two inpatient facilities are centralised, which is due to take place soon. This reconfiguration will require capital investment.

·        SPFT is currently hiring three Non-Executive Directors. This is not because of CQC recommendations to replace the Non-Executive Board, but because three current Non-Executive Directors have left simultaneously for different reasons:

o   one Non-Executive’s term of service is up, so their role is being advertised;

o   one has been appointed to a senior post elsewhere and cannot commit to the workload;

o   the third has resigned due to ill health.

·        SPFT is carrying out a Governance Review to ensure governance arrangements in the organisation work as effectively and as efficiently as possible. Monitor requires foundation trusts to review their governance each year, but this review has additional motivation:

o   the CQC report identified the SPFT did not deal with risk as well as it should;

o   the new Chief Executive considered the governance process to be slightly unwieldy.

·        In cooperation with the Grassroots, SPFT has produced a suicide prevention app called StayAlive that provides information to users about a whole range of organisations and services that can provide help to them if they are having suicidal thoughts. The number of users of the app has increased considerably and it is now used across Sussex. The app has won a couple of national wards.

·        SPFTs Suicide Prevention Strategy – which is currently under development – is characterised by a targeted approach to certain high risk groups and a greater involvement in suicide prevention. The Strategy sets out how SPFT will target certain groups of people who are at a higher risk of suicide, for example, people who have been discharged from SPFT services less than 3 days previously; people who have been admitted to SPFT services for less than 3 days; and those people with mental health illnesses that evidence suggests are more at risk of suicide. The Strategy also sets out how SPFT is working with each Public Health Department in Sussex to ensure that the Trust is playing its part in the wider suicide prevention agenda. This is in recognition that 70% of people who take their own lives are not known to the system and that, as a consequence, there needs to be a much wider public health response from across the health and social care system.

·        SPFT’s Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services (CAMHS) also covers Hampshire and Kent. The main concern of the CQC for this service were the waiting times in those localities – which are longer than SPFT would want them to be because demand outstrips SPFT’s capacity. This fact is recognised by our CCGs in those two areas.

·        The three CAMHS in Sussex, Kent and Hampshire look to learn good practice from each other, for example, the Hampshire CAMHS service developed an app for young people that provides them with different ways to access services other than to be seen in person by a clinician (which can be stigmatising for them). SPFT is planning to make the app available across all three counties.

18.3     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) note the report and its appendices;

2) request to see the Suicide Prevention Strategy once it has been agreed.