Mental healthcare rated "good" but safety must improve

Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) was graded by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Thursday.

The service provides mental health, drug and alcohol services in Rotherham and elsewhere.

Inspectors visited four mental health services, one community health service and three adult social care locations.

They were rated as “good” for effectiveness, care, responsiveness and leadership, but “requires improvement” for safety.

Inspectors highlighted several successes — they called leadership and guidance on CSE as “exemplary”.

Engagement with deaf patients had led to a range of improvements for them, the watchdog added, including staff learning sign language.

The safety rating could have fallen for a number of reasons, inspectors said.

Staff on some teams were not up-to-date with mandatory training, they said. Others had not received recent appraisals of their performance.

Some did not always follow the trust’s lone working procedures — but an action plan has been written to fix these issues.

Chief executive Kathryn Singh said: “Our staff work incredibly hard to deliver our services to patients and their carers.

“This overall ‘good’ rating reflects their hard work. This is a really good overall rating, which directors are proud of.

“However, we know some areas require improving and we have an action plan in place to ensure this happens quickly.

“In fact work is already underway by our staff, who will be fully supported by their managers to undertake this work.”

“The trust and our staff will continue to work hard to ensure we deliver the best services possible to our patients, their families and carers.”

The full report can be accessed at the CQC website.