EDP: Norfolk’s mental health service put in special measures

Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Special measures will see the appointment of an “improvement director” to provide expertise and hold the trust to account, and arranging a partnership with a high-performing trust. Monitor has also imposed a new condition on NSFT’s licence, enabling the regulator to take further action, such as replacing members of […]

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Campaign Statement on Monitor putting NSFT into Special Measures

NSFT becoming the first mental health trust to be put into special measures was inevitable following the damning CQC inspection and the financial black hole. Our main concern is that service users and frontline staff are not made to pay the price of the NSFT Board’s wasted millions with further cuts to already inadequate services.

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Daily Telegraph: Whistleblowing: NHS crushes those who speak out, Sir Robert Francis QC warns

Laura Donnelly of the Daily Telegraph reports: Sir Robert believes that many of the worst failings in the NHS occur when clinical staff become powerless — are left “shrugging their shoulders” rather than challenging poor care. As he made a public call for evidence, he told The Telegraph that he feared too many had been hounded out

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EADT Editorial: A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong

A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong So, those who suggested the emperor was parading naked, and not clad in new finery, have been proved right. The very birth of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was accompanied by a chorus of warnings: about jobs; about finance; and – crucially – about care. Critics

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Kept in the dark: Some of NSFT’s ideas to improve staff engagement

Here are some of the ideas that the Board of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has told the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health it has planned to improve staff morale and engagement in its mutualisation proposals: “[NSFT] is now developing radical new plans to again reduce costs. These include a root-and-branch

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Kept in the dark: NSFT’s Board fails to share its intention to leave the NHS with its own Board of Governors, service users, carers and staff

Our initial consideration is converting the entire trust into a typical CIC. This would involve governance changes such as; refining our existing membership model (possibly reducing numbers to include only genuinely active members), a members board (replacing Governors) which will feed input into the main board, elected representatives of both members and of staff on the

Kept in the dark: NSFT’s Board fails to share its intention to leave the NHS with its own Board of Governors, service users, carers and staff Read More »

Correction: Lead Governor did share Monitor letter with governors

It was mistakenly claimed for a very short time that the Lead Governor of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) had not shared a letter to Monitor with her fellow governors. In the period between the writing and the publication of this contribution, the Lead Governor distributed the draft letter to her fellow governors.

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Ipswich Star: Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk protests at meeting attended by Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care and support, in Saxmundham

Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care and support, was met by a dozen members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk during his visit to Saxmundham on Thursday. The group was started by frontline staff and service users in response to the cuts at the Norfolk and Suffolk

Ipswich Star: Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk protests at meeting attended by Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care and support, in Saxmundham Read More »

Lobby NSFT Board of Governors Meeting: Thursday 8th January 2015, 1230, City Hall, Norwich NR2 1NH

We will be lobbying the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Board of Governors meeting tomorrow. Meet at 1230 on the City Hall steps. Some of us will also be attending the meeting which runs from 1300-1700 in the Council Chamber. Please join us. Despite mountains of paperwork, detailed terms of reference and long meetings,

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Keep our NHS Public: Health Warning – A mutual may be heading our way

Jan Ainsley from Keep our NHS Public writes: Michael Scott, Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), was “delighted” to be able to write to staff with good news. NSFT has been successful in its application to investigate becoming a mutual in the government’s “Mutuals in Healthcare Pathfinder” initiative. Sounds cuddly doesn’t

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Audio: Campaigner Emma Corlett of Unison interviewed on BBC Radio Norfolk about massive cuts envisaged by NSFT’s 5 Year Strategic Plan

We have already written about the massive cuts envisaged by the 5 Year Plan submitted by Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to its regulator, Monitor. At the NSFT Board meeting last week, one of the non-executive directors of NSFT acknowledged that the real-terms depth of the planned cuts is 7.5 per cent per

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EDP: Mental health trust warns of more jobs cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of plans to make £44m more savings

Campaigners have pledged to lobby Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) board of directors meeting today over a new plan, which says that extra savings of £44m would need to be found by 2019, if there is no major increase in mental health funding. Members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in

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NSFT pulls its Five Year Strategic Plan from the internet

But you can still read our copy of the five year strategic plan here. The plan begins on page 20 of the pdf. Strange the way it disappeared after we criticised it. The papers for the Board of Directors meeting in Swaffam tomorrow don’t contain it any longer. How embarrassing.

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26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Chair, Gary Page, is too busy watching the football in sunny Brazil to attend the next public Board of Directors meeting at The Green Britain Centre (formerly Eco-Tech) in Swaffam on Thursday, 26th June 2014. But it is vital that we attend. Join us to oppose the rubber stamping

26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos Read More »

NSFT seeks to reduce out of area placements by refusing emergency admissions rather than by providing necessary beds

A member of the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) crisis team writes: “NSFT seems determined to reduce the number of out of area placements but not by providing an adequate number of local beds. A senior NSFT manager is going around the country trying to discharge out of area patients. How can this

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BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients in 200-mile bed trek

“Some mental health patients in Suffolk and Norfolk are having to travel more than 200 miles (321km) for a bed, it has emerged. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the situation was “unacceptable”. Unison urged the government to develop a “rescue package” for mental health services, which they said left 22 patients facing the journey last

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EDP: ‘Unacceptable’ – health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges action on out of area mental health placements in Norfolk and Suffolk

Adam Gretton of the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) reports: The government’s health minister pledged to “do what it takes” to address the pressure on mental health beds after being told of some Norfolk and Suffolk patients having to travel more than 200 miles for a bed. When told about the situation at NSFT, Mr Hunt

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Campaign governors needed at NSFT

The governing body of the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has failed to properly scrutinise the non-executive directors of the Trust and does not reflect the opinions of the majority of its stakeholders. This failure of corporate governance is an important factor in the worsening crisis in mental health services in Norfolk and

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