The NHS Trust providing community physical, mental health and learning disability services for Gloucestershire has been rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was inspected in April and May 2022. Today the CQC has officially published its report, announcing that the Trust is ‘Good’ and has highlighted a number of outstanding features.
The Trust was formed on 1 October 2019, following the merger of Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust and 2gether NHS Foundation Trust. Its 5,600 colleagues, who include nurses, doctors, dentists, healthcare assistants, and allied health professionals, work in community hospitals, as well as mental health and learning disability inpatient units. However, services are primarily provided in up to 200 community settings as well as people’s own homes.
Karen Bennett-Wilson, CQC head of inspection, said: “It was clear during our inspection that the leadership of Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust have worked to ensure the trust is continuing to uphold a good standard of care and treatment. Staff are working hard to provide support and care with dignity and compassion, despite the challenges of a trust merger and coming through a national pandemic.
“There are some areas where improvements could be made and the trust were aware before we even highlighted those areas for development. However, this is a very good report and I want to congratulate the trust for sustaining the level of care they have.
“We look forward to returning, to see how they’ve been able to build on this foundation.”
Trust Chair, Ingrid Barker, said: “CQC inspections are, quite rightly, always very rigorous and challenging. Our inspection came two years into the Covid pandemic and just over two years since we formed as a Trust, so we are delighted that the services we are providing have met with a ringing endorsement from the CQC.
“The purpose of our organisation is to provide the very best services we can for the people we serve who often turn to us at very difficult times in their lives. So knowing that our independent inspection has rated what we do as ‘good’ matters a great deal for the people of Gloucestershire as well as being excellent news for us as a Trust.
“We’re also delighted that the Trust’s leadership has been found to be supportive and effective, and particularly pleased that while examining our culture, the CQC found our colleagues were respected, supported and valued across all sectors.
“Above all, the inspection report is testimony to the skills, experience and dedication of each and every colleague across our Trust – we are incredibly proud of our services and teams.”
The CQC provides ratings in five domains – Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led. The Trust was rated Good in each domain, other than Safe where the CQC felt the Trust required improvement.
One Trust service – community end of life care – was judged to be ‘outstanding’ in the caring domain, and the CQC said: “Patients were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care.”
Trust Chief Executive, Paul Roberts, said: “When we formed Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust we knew we would need to work very hard to uphold the good ratings previously held by both GCS and 2gether. We didn’t know then that we would have the added pressure of a pandemic, however it’s reassuring for us – and more importantly for the people we serve – that we have maintained the high quality services the county expects and deserves.
“There are, of course, areas where we need to improve but we have already started and indeed completed work on some of the issues highlighted by the CQC. The people of Gloucestershire can be confident that we will maintain and indeed build on this significant achievement.”
The full CQC report can be read here: Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust – Overview – Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)
