CQC Report following the inspection of LPFT services in March 2020

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has notified LPFT that on Monday 22 June 2020 they published a report following the inspection of their services in March. LPFT are pleased to say that the Trust has maintained an overall rating of Good and Outstanding for their leadership.

In March the inspectors visited the mental health rehabilitation inpatient wards – the Vales, the Fens and the Wolds at Discovery House in Lincoln; Ashley House in Grantham and Maple Lodge in Boston. Because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS, the CQC temporarily suspended all routine inspections after 16 March, and the planned well-led review has therefore not been completed.

LPFT would always like to think of the inspection as their chance to find out what they need to focus on in order to become Outstanding and to demonstrate the areas they can improve. The CQC’s latest report has indicated that there is some more work to be done in terms of how effective the mental health rehabilitation services are and the CQC rated this area as Requires Improvement.

LPFT know it may feel like a setback, especially after the tremendous amount of effort that has gone into their continuous quality improvement programme over the last few years. However, they know that their services have been under increased pressure due to rising demand and complexity of patients. At the same time, they have been implementing the transformation of both inpatient and community services that required staff to think about new ways of providing care. Particularly, within the rehabilitation services, they have been engaging with staff on the new community rehabilitation model. It is understood that adjusting to change can be difficult, and some of the feedback from the CQC reflects the challenges of implementing new services and new ways of working. They will continue the engagement with staff, patients and carers to co-produce and design this new service.

The CQC recognised the compassionate patient care and good practice and gave a clear indication of where LPFT can support their staff to make the services more effective. LPFT will now take the time to go through the report in detail and put plans in place to address the recommendations.

Over the years the Trust has gone from strength to strength since their initial inspection in 2015 when they were rated Requires Improvement overall, Good in 2017 and Good overall with Outstanding for well-led in 2019.  The past few months have been challenging for everyone, and many teams have gone above and beyond preparing for the inspection and then in facing the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the CQC only visited one core service on this occasion, the improvements made will benefit the patients and their loved ones and will contribute to the long-term quality of the services.

LPFT want to thank all staff, volunteers, governors, patients, families and carers for their continued support in the run-up to the inspection and especially over the last few months while the NHS was under increased pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paul Devlin                           Brendan Hayes
Chair                                     Chief Executive