Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) regarding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of the Trust’s adult community mental health services. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 8’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee welcomed to the meeting for this item Jean Knight, Managing Director, LPT and Saskya Falope, DMH Head of Nursing, LPT.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)           In response to a query about the exact scope of the CQC inspection, it was explained that this was set out in the CQC report, a link to which was provided in the covering report to the Committee. The voluntary sector, who played a significant role in LPT services, had not been part of the CQC inspection. The delivery of mental health services was complex and it was not possible to cover it all in the report.

(ii)         In November 2020 LPT’s adult community mental health services were receiving approximately 200 referrals a month, whereas in November 2025 the service received around 700 referrals. In response to a question as to why there had been such a significant increase in demand, it was suggested that isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic was a big factor, but it could also be due to socio-economic/cost of living factors. In addition, the introduction of the Central Access Point made it easier for people to refer themselves into LPT, whereas before they had to be referred from their GP. Whilst this was a positive, it had resulted in an increase in demand on LPT services.

(iii)        In response to concerns raised by members about waiting times and patients failing to attend appointments, it was explained that a person’s mental health could fluctuate and may have improved between the time the appointment was booked and the actual date of the appointment. There were also trends with regards to missed appointments for example Mondays and Thursdays were the days of the week on which the most Did Not Attends (DNAs) occurred. Some patients struggled with appointments earlier in the day. Text messages were sent out to remind patients of appointments. Reassurance was given that there was a robust process in place for managing DNAs and assessing whether immediate action needed to be taken, such as contacting relatives.

(iv)       In response to further questions about LPT activity and performance trends it was agreed that more detailed information would be provided after the meeting.

(v)         A member raised concerns that people having a mental health crisis might feel overwhelmed by the amount of services, websites and phone numbers available. In response it was explained that the Central Access Point was there to simplify the whole process from a patient perspective and all a patient had to do was call NHS 111 and then select Option 2 in order to be directed to the appropriate place for them.

(vi)       The Community Connector was a new role within LPT Mental Health Planned Care Services designed to help support people to achieve better mental health and wellbeing and link them in with a wider integrated team of voluntary sector, local authority, and primary care staff.

(vii)      LPT was making use of technology to help patients, such as with the Joy mobile phone app which connected people with local community services and wellbeing groups.

(viii)    One of the areas the CQC had identified for improvement was unfilled vacancies and reliance on long-term temporary staffing. This was partly a result of mental health services expanding quickly in a short space of time. However, since the inspection had taken place in May 2025 improvements had been made and there were now less vacancies and more qualified staff available for recruitment.

(ix)       A member raised concerns that the adult community mental health services were not the only services provided by LPT that CQC rated as ‘requires improvement’ and queried whether there was a more systemic problem in LPT. In response it was submitted by LPT that overall the CQC ratings for LPT had improved, and also pointed out that some of the CQC inspections for other LPT services had been several years ago so the CQC ratings could be out of date. The approach of the CQC had evolved over the years and it was difficult for Trusts to know what the inspection criteria was and what actions would result in a good inspection report. In response, the member noted that some of LPT’s failures related to government regulations which the Trust was in breach of and stated that LPT should have been clearly aware what those regulations were.

(x)         It was queried how LPT compared with other Trusts and whether the complexity of the services provided by LPT made it difficult to improve performance. In response it was explained that when compared with other Trusts LPT was about average. In addition to the CQC there were other mechanisms for measuring performance such as the National Oversight Framework.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted with some concern.