CQC lifts conditions on registration for Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today (27 May 2010) announced that it has removed two conditions placed on the registration of Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust. The conditions both related to safeguarding vulnerable people who use services and the trust has provided evidence to show that they are now compliant. Since 1 April this year, all 378 NHS trusts who provide services in England are required to be registered with CQC, under a new system of regulation. To be registered, trusts had to show they met new essential standards of quality and safety, which CQC will constantly monitor.

Kent and Medway was one of the 22 trusts whose registration was conditional on action being taken to address concerns about the safety and quality of care. CQC set out the action required at each trust with strict deadlines for improvements.

In its assessment of Kent and Medway, CQC had been concerned with the trust’s implementation of the Mental Capacity Act. The trust’s informal leave policy promoted the detention of informal patients without any legal framework for the first three days of their in-patient care.

In order to be registered, the trust was instructed to revise its informal leave policy for non-detained patients in line with the Mental Capacity Act and deprivation of liberty safeguards. It was also
required to ensure that staff were trained to work in accordance with the reviewed policy.

Roxy Boyce, CQC's regional director, said: “The first condition related to the policy that sets out the rights of voluntary mental health patients at the Trust. This was removed on appeal after CQC received written evidence from the trust that addressed our concerns. We removed the second condition relating to staff training around this policy following a meeting with trust senior management on 14 April and three site visits by inspectors on 19 April. “During the site visits we spoke to people using the trust’s services and to staff. The visits provided clear evidence that a high percentage of staff have been trained since the end of March and that this has had a positive impact on the experience of patients. ”We are satisfied with the progress that the trust has made to safeguard the rights of people who use services, based on our recommendations. As part of the CQC's new regulation system, we will continually monitor the trust to ensure it is providing safe, quality care to the people it serves.”