Care Quality Commission

Our CQC rating

We are very pleased that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated our Trust as Good, recognising the improvements we have made since their last inspection and the strength and quality of the services we provide.

As a values-led learning organisation, we welcome the fresh eyes their independent view of our services provided during their inspection of our core services in May and June this year.

We are pleased that they have recognised our significant improvement since their last inspection in 2018. We delivered on the actions from the last report, which has led to four of the five overall domains now being rated as Good. We are also pleased that our mental health community services have improved and are now rated Good.

Overall, we are now rated Good for being responsive, caring, well led and effective, and Requires Improvement for being safe. This means that overall we have been rated Good as a Trust.

They found that 12 of our 14 core services are rated Good. Over 87% of our individual domains have been rated as Good or Outstanding.

View our ratings chart and overall rating poster.

Some of the main points highlighted by the CQC include:

• The vast majority of our services are rated as Good or Outstanding.
• Our community based mental health services for working age adults have improved and is now rated Good.
• Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric care units have improved
• We have improved and are now rated as Good for being Responsive
• 93% of our services were rated as Caring and Responsive
• Staff were kind and caring towards service users, with positive relationships that demonstrated we knew them well
• The values of the organisation were understood and respected by both leaders and those working in core services. Our strategy, vision and values were all identified as being patient centred.

A summary of the findings can be found in this infographic.

What has gone well:

• Our general community services in Barnsley are all rated Good or Outstanding
• Community health services for children, young people and families are rated Outstanding for Caring
• Our end of life care service is rated Outstanding for being Effective
• Community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism is rated as Good
• Our wards for people with learning disabilities or autism are rated Good
• Community based mental health services for older people is rated as Good
• Long stay and rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults is rated as Good
• Mental health crisis services and health based places of safety is rated as Good
• Forensic inpatient and secure wards are rated as Good
• Staff reported feeling respected, valued and supported. They demonstrated throughout the inspection a patient centred culture that treated people with care and respect
• Our occupational health support was highlighted, particularly for the support that is available for staff involved in serious incidents
• The commitment by the Trust to provide a holistic and preventative approach to patient care was evidenced, including good access to physical healthcare
• The CQC found that all of our clinical premises were safe, clean, well equipped, well furnished and well maintained

You can see the improvement from the last inspection here:

2018 rating

2019 rating

As a learning Trust we won’t lose sight of what we need to do to make further improvements. The CQC identified we face challenges and we will make sure to focus on this as part of our action planning:

• Specialist community mental health services for children and young people remains as Requires Improvement
• Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units have improved. We now need to work to build on these improvements so that the service gets even better.
• CAMHS waiting lists are too high in some areas, particularly for those with an autistic spectrum disorder, although the CQC recognised that we are providing low level support to people while they wait
• Pharmacy and medicine management should be a priority for leaders
• While risk assessments were robust and comprehensive in places, more focus was needed on them in other areas
While we are delighted that we have been rated as Good we will not be complacent. We put people first and in the centre so our first priority is to address the issues highlighted. We demonstrated after the last inspection that we were willing to act on any issues they found, leading to an improved inspection this time around.

As a learning organisation that is values led we will focus on what we now need to do to make further improvements. We will also continue to do whatever we can to make sure that service users, carers and families are supported and receive the best care and experience possible.

We’re working collaboratively on our action plan, which will be published on our website via our Trust Board papers in due course.

A copy of the full report can be found here.

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