Strong leadership critical to mental health care

A new report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that strong, visible and listening leadership is vital in driving improvements in the quality of mental health hospital care.

Driving improvement: case studies from seven mental health trusts reports that god leadership and good governance go hand in hand, finding that most of the trusts had made changes to their systems and processes to drive improvement.

Improvement was also supported by cultural changes, with the CQC highlighting the importance of creating an environment where staff feel able to speak up and speak out, as well as the benefits of taking the views and experiences of patients and the public into account.

Paul Lelliott, CQC’s lead for mental health, said: “At a time when the mental health sector struggles with challenges including unprecedented demand and workforce shortages, it is especially encouraging that these Trusts have demonstrated that they are able improve because they have strong, visible leadership that is compassionate and inclusive.  This engages and empowers front-line staff and unlocks their full potential to develop and improve patient care.

“In this report, we give examples of how these trusts have worked hard to strengthen their leadership through training, mentoring and development; including through working with NHS Improvement. In particular, the report emphasises the essential role of strong clinical leadership that ensures that medical and nursing staff are fully at one with the trust’s ambitions. I encourage others to look at and learn from these case studies to help them in their own improvement work. I am confident that the trusts themselves will be willing to share with others the lessons they have learned on their improvement journey so far.”

The report focused on the work of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust and Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust who all moved from a ‘Requires Improvement’ rating to ‘Good’, as well as Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which moved from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’.