Bradford care trust inspected by Care Quality Commission

The CQC carried out an inspection in June after receiving concerns about the quality of care being provided.

Following this inspection all the ratings remain the same. The service is rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall and for being safe and responsive to people’s needs. Effective, caring and well-led are rated as good. The overall trust rating remains rated as good.

Brian Cranna, CQC head of hospital inspection for mental health and community health services, said: “During our inspection of community health services for children and young people at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, we found a service that was well-led, and leaders knew about the challenges they faced and were passionate about making improvements.

"These included taking action to recruit more staff and offering development opportunities to existing staff.

“We found staff treated children, young people and their families with compassion and kindness and were enthusiastic about the roles they performed and wanted to provide high quality care.

"Staff recognised the importance of mental and emotional health as well as physical health and offered appropriate support and information to families.”

However, the inspection found: "The service did not have enough staff, there were several unfilled vacancies and staff were holding caseloads much larger than recommended by national guidance. Staff sickness and turnover levels were high.

"Aspects of the service were in business continuity which meant that not all services were being provided.

"There were waiting lists in place in the looked after children’s team which meant that children waited for individual health assessments longer than they should, and this was not in line with national guidance.

"The service worked on a risk-based approach whereby children were placed into four tiers dependent on need.

"We were concerned that in some cases late identification of health conditions and disabilities could occur for those children in lower tiers of need due to lower levels of oversight for these families."

Phil Hubbard, Director of Nursing, Professions and Care Standards at the Care Trust, said: “The inspectors recognised the compassion and kindness of the staff in our school nursing and health visiting teams, their holistic focus on both physical and mental wellbeing, and ensuring that families receive the care and treatment that meets their needs. 

“They also reported that the service is well led and that staff at every level are passionate about driving improvements and service innovation for those in our care. 

“We recognise and are already addressing the areas that the report identifies. This includes reviewing and strengthening our approach to recruitment and skills development, and introducing new specialist roles to provide additional support, that are starting to show positive results.”