Agenda item

Report of the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The Committee had requested that the MPFT attend the meeting to provide information on the creation of the Trust following the merger between Staffordshire and  Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust (SSOTP) and South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (SSSFT) in June 2018.

Neil Carr, Chief Executive Officer MPFT; Liz Lockett, Executive Director for Quality and Clinical Performance and Clare Neill, Director of Communications attended the meeting to present the report and answer questions.

The Committee was informed that the main issue had been the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report on SSOTP prior to the merger.  The CQC had recently returned to reinspect and the new trust had received a ‘Good’ overall rating with four areas rated good and one requiring improvement.  The area requiring improvement, involved the triage system at the Haywood Hospital site and supervision in some parts or the organisation.  Members were informed that work had taken place across the whole of the organisation to develop a 1:1 supervision routine and this was now becoming embedded.  The Triage issue at Haywood Hospital had been as a result of staff not understanding the process and the need for recording timings.  This had now been addressed.

When asked if the financial position of the Trust had improved, the Committee were informed that it had and there were now more opportunities to change systems and manage finance more effectively.

Following the recent closure of the George Bryan Centre West Wing, due to fire damage, it had been considered that the East Wing had been too isolated to continue to operate and services had been temporarily moved into the community.  There was a conversation /engagement taking place on the future model of provision for these services.  The feedback from the engagement exercise so far included transport issues for both patients and family.  It was reported that there were adequate numbers of beds available, but they may not be in convenient locations.  More work was taking place into increasing community support to prevent hospital admissions.

When the Trust was merged, four operating arms were established to ensure that the organisation could respond to specific challenges.  These were: Children and families; Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent; Specialist: Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.  Services were monitored from the centre, but the structure meant that there was flexibility to respond to issues either locally or from one of the groups.  As the Primary Care Networks develop, groupings in these teams should also allow closer partnership working and reduce the risk of silos.

It was hoped that increased partnership working would lead to better management of long-term health conditions and merging the trusts had enabled better communication.  An example was given of a pilot project into pain management which had seen teams working closer together, with mental health professionals having an input and helping to reduce the side effects of long-term pain such as depression and opioid addiction. 

Following a question on financial initiatives and the impact on client care and staffing, Members were informed that before reducing or changing any service, a full quality impact assessment was carried out to establish the risk associated with any new initiative.  One of the current initiatives being looked at was that of back office services which would have minimal impact of clients.

Recruitment and retention of social workers had improved, however some groups of staff such as staff nurses still remained a challenge.  Initiatives such as ‘speak up’ had given staff the confidence to report issues knowing that they would be investigated properly.  If was felt that this had improved staff morale and would reduce staff turnover as a safe organisation was attractive to work in.  The Committee congratulated MPFT on being nominated for so many awards this year including ‘Freedom to Speak Up’.

Following a question raised by a Member, the Committee was informed that the trust did not have any beds for under 18 year olds with mental health problems.  MPFT does however, sometimes have to admit them into the 136 suite if they need a place of safety.  This was a national problem and more community care provision and CAMHs support was needed to provide crisis support for the young.

A Member informed the Committee that they were aware of issues at the Royal Derby Hospital were services were failing to answer phones or help lines.  Mr Carr asked the member to pass on the information so that this could be investigated.

RESOLVED:  That the report be received, and that the following information be requested:

a)    How the amalgamation of mental health and physical health professionals was being approached;

b)    How the community crisis and support intervention was working for young people.

c)    The outcomes of the award nominations.

d)      The Committee be formally consulted on any proposed changes to the George Bryan Centre.