{"id":370141,"date":"2026-01-14T22:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370141\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T22:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:26:07","slug":"nottinghamshire-healthcare-trust-told-to-take-immediate-action-after-cqc-well-led-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370141\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust told to take \u2018immediate action\u2019 after CQC well-led review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Care Quality Commission (CQC)<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0again\u00a0rated\u00a0Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust\u00a0as\u00a0requires improvement\u00a0for how well-led it is\u00a0following an inspection in\u00a0September.<\/p>\n

The trust\u00a0delivers integrated care services, including\u00a0inpatient, community and high secure\u00a0mental health,\u00a0learning disability,\u00a0and physical health services. The trust employs over 11,000 staff work and provides\u00a0services in a variety of settings from over 250\u00a0different\u00a0locations,\u00a0delivering\u00a0care to a population of around 1.1 million people.<\/p>\n

Between May 2024 and August 2025, CQC has\u00a0carried\u00a0out a programme of\u00a039\u00a0inspections at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This was\u00a0part\u00a0of recommendations\u00a0CQC\u00a0made during its\u00a0formal review<\/a>, commissioned by\u00a0Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,\u00a0of\u00a0Nottinghamshire\u00a0Healthcare\u2019s\u00a0services following the devastating attack\u00a0carried out\u00a0in June 2023<\/a>\u00a0by Valdo\u00a0Calocane.<\/p>\n

Inspectors carried out this trust-wide well-led\u00a0review\u00a0following\u00a0these service\u00a0inspections to assess the trust\u2019s\u00a0leadership.\u00a0During\u00a0this inspection, CQC\u00a0identified\u00a0breaches of regulation relating to how the trust was\u00a0managed and\u00a0has\u00a0told\u00a0the trust to\u00a0submit\u00a0an action\u00a0plan\u00a0showing what immediate and widespread action it is taking in response to these concerns.<\/p>\n

The CQC last rated how well-led the trust is as \u2018requires improvement\u2019 in an inspection using its previous methodology for trust ratings.<\/p>\n

The CQC currently gives NHS trusts a single trust-level rating focusing on leadership and culture that replaces all other ratings at that level. CQC is consulting on this approach following recent feedback from those in the sector and learning from the reviews by Dr Penny Dash, Professor Sir Mike Richards and the Care Provider Alliance.<\/p>\n

Ceri Morris-Williams, CQC\u00a0deputy\u00a0director of\u00a0mental health\u00a0in the midlands, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our inspection of\u00a0Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, we\u00a0found the trust\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0made specific improvements we had told it to make at\u00a0a previous\u00a0inspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there were some positive areas where the trust was progressing, we found senior leaders needed to prioritise essential improvements and embed a positive culture and strategies across the organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople supported by the trust were\u00a0generally positive\u00a0about the care and treatment they received from some services and staff. They were happy with their interactions with staff and had positive experiences, and staff made them feel involved in their care and support. However, some people\u00a0told us they\u00a0had more negative experiences of staff who\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0compassionate or professional.\u00a0They also highlighted issues accessing mental health services\u00a0and\u00a0long waiting\u00a0times, and\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0feel involved in decisions about their care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2022, we\u00a0told the trust to make significant improvements\u00a0and\u00a0remove shared living, dormitory style accommodation.\u00a0Leaders\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0been proactive\u00a0in completing this\u00a0work, and\u00a0as a result\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0told them\u00a0to take immediate action to remove this accommodation and\u00a0prioritise improving the estate and environments across\u00a0its services.\u00a0We found this to be in breach of regulation relating to how well the service is managed.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the level of concern,\u00a0around this breach and others breaches\u00a0we\u00a0identified,\u00a0\u00a0we\u00a0asked the trust to submit an action plan that addresses how they will\u00a0embed and make\u00a0progress on its shared vision and strategy,\u00a0a strategic\u00a0culture to deliver workforce equality and diversity, and\u00a0the Patient and Care Race Equality Framework (PCREF).<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the trust board\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have the shared vision to drive changes and improvements and achieve the trust\u2019s goals. We found the board\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0always\u00a0work together in a collaborative way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have told the\u00a0trust where they need to make immediate and widespread improvements, and we will continue to monitor services to make sure people are safe while this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspectors found:<\/p>\n

While senior leaders spoke positively about improving trust culture, they\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0consistently\u00a0taken action to make\u00a0this happen.\u00a0For example, one of the risks in the board assurance framework recognised that staff\u2019s experience at work\u00a0was\u00a0poor, which\u00a0was leading\u00a0to poor engagement and higher levels of absence and turnover\u00a0which\u00a0impacted\u00a0on people using services. However, the board\u00a0assurance framework\u2019s language focused on attributing responsibility\u00a0to\u00a0staff for this risk\u00a0and\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0recognised the\u00a0negative language and its potential\u00a0effect this\u00a0could have on staff morale,\u00a0and how this directly contributed to poor culture.Leaders\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have a shared vision or strategy to consistently drive forward effective change and\u00a0the\u00a0strategic goals of the trust.The trust had the right skills and resources in place to\u00a0lead\u00a0on workforce equality and diversity\u00a0work\u00a0but this had been overshadowed by other priorities and not given the importance it deserved.While work had recently started, the trust needed to\u00a0continue to\u00a0ensure that medical leaders could be as active and embedded in services as their colleagues in other clinical leadership roles and disciplines. Medical leaders\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0always have the capacity and the voice in all triumvirate working across the trust. Their workloads had prevented them being an\u00a0active partner in the triumvirate leadership\u00a0model.Leaders\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have full oversight in\u00a0several\u00a0key areas, including of the Mental Health\u00a0Act. Despite\u00a0leaders\u00a0making improvements in the governance data\u00a0they had access\u00a0to,\u00a0this\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0always\u00a0accurate.Leaders\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0always have access to reliable data and key stakeholders had expressed\u00a0concerns about this. Inspectors found examples of discrepancies in medical staff vacancy rates and equality,\u00a0diversity\u00a0and inclusion data which\u00a0leaders\u00a0needed to correct and\u00a0update.Staff told inspectors there was a disconnect between them and leaders, with\u00a0signs of\u00a0a blame culture as well as racism and harassment.\u00a0Although leaders believed their culture shift to becoming a learning organisation was\u00a0active, inspectors saw areas where this\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0happening\u00a0consistently\u00a0in practice.\u00a0Staff felt leaders communicated poorly which led them to feel untrusted and undervalued.<\/p>\n

However:<\/p>\n

In March 2024, the trust\u00a0began an organisational change programme which involved\u00a0leadership changes, a review and reorganisation of lines of accountability, and strengthening of clinical\u00a0leadership. Inspectors spoke to associate directors, department heads and senior\u00a0leaders\u00a0in services who\u00a0supported\u00a0and encouraged\u00a0speaking\u00a0up.\u00a0In\u00a0response to staff survey findings,\u00a0leaders\u00a0had taken steps to engage with staff and develop compassionate\u00a0leaders\u00a0across the organisation through\u00a0leadership programmes.The trust had\u00a0experienced\u00a0a significant level of\u00a0scrutiny and\u00a0had\u00a0shown openness\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0reviews and investigations\u00a0that have taken place. This period had affected the progress of plans,\u00a0strategies\u00a0and stakeholder relationships.Inspectors found strong,\u00a0robust\u00a0and effective working in\u00a0the oversight of safety and quality at the trust.\u00a0Leaders\u00a0were skilled,\u00a0passionate\u00a0and committed to delivering high quality care by prioritising the safety of the people the trust supported.Leaders\u00a0were working to build relationships with partner organisations and played an active role in regional collaborative groups.Leaders\u00a0were aware of the trust\u2019s impact on environmental sustainability and were able to provide examples where they had made changes to reduce the trust\u2019s carbon footprint. These included growing green spaces, improving food menus to reduce waste, and using alternative cleaning products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Care Quality Commission (CQC)\u00a0has\u00a0again\u00a0rated\u00a0Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust\u00a0as\u00a0requires improvement\u00a0for how well-led it is\u00a0following an inspection in\u00a0September. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-370141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}