Annual Health Check results

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust has received a rating of good for its quality of financial management and fair for quality of services in the Care Quality Commission Annual Health Check for 2008/09.

AWP’s Director of Nursing Hazel Watson said “We are delighted that our strong financial footing puts us in an even better position to deliver the standards of service that people rightly expect of us. Thanks must go to the dedication of our staff who are absolutely committed to achieving a very high standard of care at all times, so naturally there is some disappointment that we very narrowly missed our anticipated score for quality of service but overall we have seen great improvements in the work done throughout the Trust this year.”

There have been some changes in the method of collecting and analyzing the data for results within Ambulance and Mental Health Trusts, meaning they were subject to a broader assessment this year. According to the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) we are therefore not dealing with a “like for like” comparison on previous years.

In Depth

Financial management

AWP is pleased to receive a score of good for quality of financial management. The clearing of the historic deficit, which was projected last year, enables the Trust to better plan for the long-term future. The Trust is now in a position to reinvest in further improving its patient environments and services.

Quality of Services

The standard for quality of services is made up of two components: Standards for Better Health [S4BH] and the National Priority Targets [NPT]. While the Trust met all 44 standards required within S4BH, its score was affected by missing the required target on just two aspects out of ten within the NPT component.

These areas were:

• The Green Light Toolkit. This is an assessment framework designed to identify how well the National Service Framework for mental health is implemented in relation to people with learning disabilities.

Since the data for this year’s health check was captured, AWP has launched its dedicated Learning Disabilities service which will lead to significant progression in this area. The service, based at the Lansdowne Assessment and Treatment Unit on the Blackberry Hill Hospital site in Bristol is an acute admission specialist mental health service for people with learning difficulties.

• Staff satisfaction. The Trust has made great inroads into addressing some of its staff’s concerns, having recently completed the first phase of a major project called Listening into Action, where all staff have been encouraged to give their views on the issues they face in order that action may be taken to better support them. The use of stress and welfare management tools and staff supervision schemes has also been encouraged.

View the results on the Care Quality Commission website