Mental health Trust is downgraded because of failures in its leadership

THE NHS organisation running mental health services across Bristol and much of the West Country has been downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ after a watchdog inspection found failings in its leadership.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership runs care from Bristol and Weston-super-Mare to Bath, Swindon and Salisbury, covering a population of around 1.8 million people.

But the Care Quality Commission now said it inspected the trust and found two breaches of regulation - one relating to safeguarding, and the other relating to how the trust was being managed.

The CQC inspectors said they undertook the inspection because of the number of concerns raised about the quality of care in various parts of its service. The inspectors found specific parts of the mental health services in Avon and Wiltshire - the acute and psychiatric intensive care units and the community mental health services for working-age adults - were actually both rated good. But the inspectors returned to carry out a ‘Well-Led’ inspection, looking at the way the trust itself was managed and led and the issues they found have now prompted the CQC to downgrade the entire trust.

Perhaps the most concerning discovery by the inspectors was a culture of fear of speaking out among staff about issues and problems in the trust.