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22.12.15

Monitor lifts regulation of Cumbria trust after service and leadership overhaul

Cumbria Partnership NHT FT, a community and mental health services provider, is no longer under regulatory supervision after making fundamental changes to how it is structured and led.

Monitor has announced it is satisfied with the trust’s progress, particularly with how it has given clinicians more control over patient services and ensured frontline staff can easily communicate with senior leaders.

Paul Chandler, the regulator’s regional director, said: “It is great to see that the board has enabled clinical staff to have greater influence on the way care is provided to patients in Cumbria.

“The trust has significantly improved the way it is run and taken on board the recommendations for strengthening its leadership and governance processes. This is good news for patients in Cumbria, who can be confident that the quality of their care is right at the heart of decisions taken by their local mental health and community healthcare provider.”

As well as empowering staff, the trust has strengthened its clinical leadership by appointing more clinical experts to its senior management team, guaranteeing that direct care experiences will be brought into discussions at board level.

The enforcement actions had been applied in January 2014 following an inspection by the CQC at one of the trust’s wards in light of quality concerns.

Since then, according to the foundation trust, its overarching strategy has shifted to prioritising quality and safety, with large portions of this focusing on reorganising services into four care groups to strengthen leadership.

Its board of directors and senior management team have also been restructured to support these fresh priorities and enable cultural changes throughout the provider.

The trust has also been working closely with the region’s county council to improve health and social care services across Cumbria.

Claire Molloy, its chief executive, said: “I’m very pleased that Monitor are now confident that the changes we have made have demonstrated real improvements to the quality of our services.” But she noted: “We recognise there are still challenges within the organisation and across the wider health care system. 

“In line with the picture nationally and locally, we are spending more than we are earning and key to ensuring we can provide sustainable, high quality services for our patients in the future is continuing to work better together with our partners.”

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