East Councillors to discuss ambulance trust leadership following damning report
Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection in June
Councillors are set to be briefed on an ambulance service’s efforts to improve following a highly-critical report from a health watchdog.
On Thursday (September 22), the East Sussex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) are set to hear about ongoing work at South East Coast Ambulance Trust (SECAmb) in response to a damning inspection report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June.
In its report, the CQC rated the trust’s leadership rated as ‘inadequate’ and raised concerns that bullying, harassment and inappropriate sexualised behaviour were being ‘normalised’ in the trust’s culture.
The inspection itself, which took place in February and March, followed on from a high number of whistleblowing concerns raised about the organisation’s culture and leadership.
During the meeting, HOSC members are set to hear about work to address these concerns and improve the trust’s leadership. They will also ask questions and offer suggestions on ways to improve the process.
In papers set to be discussed at the meeting, an NHS spokesman said: “The trust board recognises that the improvement plan will develop over time and that actions will need to be transformational and sustainable.
“It recognises that some of the actions will be required to be delivered at pace and, as a result, the trust has already begun a process to create capacity through portfolio working and recruit additional resources to support the delivery of the plan.
“The board also recognises that there must be a ‘zero’ tolerance to inappropriate behaviours, this must be called out and the trust’s board members need to demonstrate the trust’s values throughout all they do.”