Pay of Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) increased by a quarter in the midst of mental health crisis

The average salary of staff at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) fell by £4,796 (18%) in just three years from £26,557 to £21,761 between 2011 and 2014. Mental health services were trashed as part of the failed ‘radical redesign’ which resulted in NSFT being rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Monitor […]

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Mind the Gap: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental health election panel

We’ve just receives this shocking press release from Mick Hardy, prospective parliamentary candidate in Norwich North for the Dandy Party and a founder member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental

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The Times: Officials seize control of shamed trust

Bizarrely, this report leaves The Guardian as the only quality daily newspaper which has not reported on the crisis at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). For how long can what many regard as the natural newspaper of the caring professions ignore what is going on the constituency of the minister responsible for mental

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Ipswich Star: Mental health bosses will make their case as they bid for the funding they are “entitled to”

Today, members of the Campaign attended the NSFT Board meeting in Ipswich. Matt Bunn of the Ipswich Star reports: Bosses at the trust running mental health services in Suffolk have pledged to fight for their “fair share” of funding as they bid to turn round the fortunes of the organisation. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS

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Lobby NSFT Board of Directors Meeting: Thursday 26th February 2015, 0915, IP-City Centre, 1 Bath St, Ipswich IP2 8SD

It is vital that we keep up the pressure on the NSFT Board to secure proper funding and deliver real improvements, especially given the financial crisis, hundreds of unallocated cases and unimplemented recommendations from serious incident reviews, the collapse of staff morale as demonstrated by the NHS Staff Survey 2014 and Monitor’s decision to put

Lobby NSFT Board of Directors Meeting: Thursday 26th February 2015, 0915, IP-City Centre, 1 Bath St, Ipswich IP2 8SD Read More »

BBC News: More than 800 Norfolk mental health patients ‘unallocated’

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: More than 800 vulnerable mental health patients in Norfolk have not been assigned care workers due to staffing shortages, a report has revealed. The 839 unallocated cases at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust include 139 youth team cases. Unison said services at the trust had been “savagely cut”.

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Monitor secures extra help for Norfolk and Suffolk to improve services and strengthen leadership

The health regulator has appointed Alan Yates as Improvement Director at the trust. Alan has over 27 years NHS experience, over half of which he has spent working for mental health trusts. Alan is employed by Monitor, but is based at the trust in a part-time capacity. He will work alongside the trust’s leadership, providing

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NHS Staff Survey 2014 – Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is worst performing mental health trust in England – official

These results are appalling. They are not only bottom quartile, they are bottom quartile of the bottom quartile, absolutely the worst of the worst. Overall staff engagement – NSFT is worst of the 57 mental health trusts in England by miles – even worse than last year Staff motivation at work – NSFT is worst of

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust failed to act on 258 recommendations

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust failed to act on 258 recommendations from 98 reviews into serious incidents, such as patient deaths, a report has revealed. Former Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said the trust’s failure to act was a “serious concern”. Serious incident reviews take place after there are unexpected or

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Audio: BBC Radio Suffolk interviews campaign member about CQC report and CAMHS crisis

Listen to Anne Humphreys, a carer and campaign member, talking from personal experience about the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating of inadequate and the crisis in mental health services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), with a particular focus on services for children and young people (CAMHS):   Anne and Bec have started

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk health trust in special measures

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust has become the first in England to be put in special measures. NHS regulator Monitor will send a team to take over the management of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. The decision comes after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported that the trust was

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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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Mirror: Mum killed herself the day after police dropped her NHS rape case probe

A mum killed herself the day after she learned police had axed their inquiry into her claim she was raped at an NHS clinic by a sex offender. Kylie Payne, 23, had befriended the man when he was admitted to the mixed ward at the mental health unit where she was being treated for depression

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EDP: Why was a sex offender placed on a mixed gender ward at mental health unit?

Kieran Lynch of the EDP reports: Miss Payne claimed in December 2011 that she had been raped by a fellow patient, but two months later was informed that police would not press charges. She was found dead the following day, an inquest in Norwich heard. At Wednesday’s hearing, Dr Bohdan Solomka, who was Miss Payne’s

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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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Sunday Telegraph: Mental health in the NHS: ‘My son wanted to die; we begged for help but there was none’

When Linda Jones received a call from her distraught husband, one cold day in December 2008, to say that their beloved 17-year-old son, Matthew, had committed suicide in his bedroom, she was inconsolable, as any mother would be. But she was not surprised. The despair the Joneses feel at the state of Britain’s mental-health services

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Community Care: Vulnerable man was failed by two NHS trusts days before he died, finds watchdog

Andy McNicoll reports: A man who had expressed suicidal thoughts was failed by two NHS trusts in the days before he was found dead in a river, an investigation by the health service ombudsman has found. Stephen Foster, 48, was found dead on 23 June 2011. Today, the ombudsman published the findings of an investigation

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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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