The trust responsible for mental health services in much of Greater Manchester must make immediate improvements after inspectors deemed part of its care in communities service 'inadequate'. 

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) scrutinised the safety of two community mental health teams from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) at short notice in April after concerns were raised by whistleblowers.

Among the issues with these teams, which are for adults of working age with a range of conditions, were a failure to assess or act upon risks to patients in a consistent manner and a failure to monitor the people awaiting assessment or treatment.

Inspectors also criticised people's inability to contact the teams with ease over the phone or via other methods and a shortage of workers.

As a result, the safety rating of this part of GMMH's care in communities service dropped down from 'requires improvement' to 'inadequate', although its overall safety rating remains as 'requires improvement'. 

The rating of the trust as a whole, which also serves the boroughs of Bolton, Manchester, Salford and Wigan, remains as 'good'.

Brian Cranna, the CQC's head of hospital inspection, said: "Due to our findings, we've served the trust a warning notice so that they're clear about what changes must be made to improve patient care and safety. 

"We will continue to monitor the service and return to check on the progress of these changes."

Deborah Partington, GMMH's chief operating officer, explained coronavirus brought with it a number of challenges for the teams, with an impact on the health and wellbeing of patients and workers alike.

Ms Partington stressed the changes made by the trust to address the issues raised by inspectors.

She said: "We acknowledge the findings of the CQC’s inspection of two of our Central Manchester-based community mental health teams and will address the concerns within their report.

"Before the inspection, we were aware of the challenges faced by Central Manchester’s mental health teams and there are already plans in place to improve the waiting times for service users. 

"In line with the national picture, recruitment of registered professionals for community mental health teams is increasingly difficult and this inevitably puts pressure on the capacity of services.

"Therefore, we are looking at ways to make roles attractive for newly-qualified and experienced staff to want to join our teams, including supporting roles."

She added: "The pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health of our communities which has led to an increase in demand for our services and we are also seeing higher levels of mental illness which is requiring more intensive care and support. 

"However, we have a process whereby we review, prioritise and monitor individuals who are waiting for assessment and treatment, with face-to-face appointments for those who are in the most urgent need of support. 

"We are also making better use of technology and using a management and supervision tool which helps mental health professionals review key data to identify the risks of a service user going into a crisis, which is vital when working with sizeable caseloads.

"Our staff have had a very challenging two years and therefore we are delivering projects on staff health and wellbeing to support those who are at work to remain well and to help those who are off sick to return when they are recovered, as safely as possible.

"Along with our partners, we will continue to work as hard as we can to improve our services for those who need us, and we would like to reassure people that service users in our care are safe. 

"We monitor the safety and risk of service users very carefully and prioritise those who need urgent help or a safeguarding risk. There are processes in place for service users to contact our teams when they need to, as well as a helpline for anyone in an immediate mental health crisis."