'Outstanding' for 'caring'!

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Solent NHS Trust, the organisation which provide community and mental health services across Portsmouth, Southampton and some parts of Hampshire ‘Good’ and said they provide ‘Outstanding’ care.

Following the visit, the Trust was rated 'Outstanding’ in the ‘caring’ domain, and rated ‘Good’ overall in the ‘effective’, ‘responsive’, ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’ domains.

The outstanding caring domain reflects how well Solent NHS Trust involve and treat people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. The CQC repeatedly praised the Trust for the commitment they show to patients, commenting that: “staff were kind, caring and treated patients with dignity and respect, and patients spoke of the positive care they received from staff.” They said people “involved patients, and those close to them, in decisions about their care and treatment.” They were also very complimentary of the culture, and said that people were proud to work for the Trust: “There was a positive organisational culture, which supported openness and transparency” and staff“spoke highly of their leaders.”

Within their report, the CQC identified areas of ‘outstanding’ practice, they included:

• The vision and purpose which was clearly stated and understood by staff, that Solent NHS Trust was working with its partners for patients in the community it served.
• The holistic approach at Solent NHS Trust to ensure that mental health was part of overall health and not separated at senior levels.
• The culture developing across the Trust in respect of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs).
• The strong medical leadership for supervision and training, alongside a quality improvement culture in the Trust.
• Improvement in Information Governance compliance and awareness resulted in the ranking second out of 55 Mental Health Trusts on the Information Governance Toolkit.
• The way in which the Trust learn and improve when things don’t go as planned and when there is positive outcomes for patients.
• The Trust's success in research and their position in the National Institute for Health Research’s annual league tables.
• The way in which the Trust actively engage in collaborative work with external partners, such as involvement with sustainability and transformation plans, and their proactive approach to system changes and integration being essential for the future and to manage resources.

 

The inspectors also found examples of outstanding practice in the Children’s and Young People core service including:

• The take up for the National Child Monitoring Programme (97.1%. compared to the national average of 90%).
• The way in which the services used methods, such as Solent Young Shapers and the 15 Steps Challenge process, to seek the views of children and young people who used the services to support development and improvements to the services.

Sue Harriman, Chief Executive, of Solent NHS Trust said: “We are grateful to the team of inspectors from the CQC who visited the Trust at the end of last year. This is a very positive report for the Trust. The results are a tribute to our teams who consistently give great care, create a great place to work and keep people safe and well at, or close to, home. I’m especially proud that the CQC found that we are ‘outstanding’ at providing caring services. Every day I see, and hear, examples of innovative and inspirational patient care, and I know these ratings are well deserved.”

“We pride ourselves on being an organisation with improvement and learning at its core, and this report is a testament to that. There will always be areas where we can do better to ensure we provide people with the very best services. There are some areas where more work is required, and we welcome the CQC’s findings. We strive for excellence and will embrace the learning opportunities the report provides.”

The full report can be downlaoded from the CQC website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/R1C