The leadership of an NHS trust providing mental health and learning disability services in Leeds and York has been rated requires improvement after inspectors found that some risks were not being addressed quickly enough.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its assessment of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust on 4 November. The inspection took place from 14 to 16 April, so its findings describe what inspectors saw and the evidence available at that time.
The regulator found a breach of rules on good management. The trust said the breach related to Regulation 17, which covers good governance, and played a major part in determining the rating.
The CQC said more work was needed on fire safety, safeguarding processes and the placement of people out of area. It was concerned that the pace of some improvements did not always provide enough assurance that risks were being managed consistently and effectively.
The trust said it was rated good at its last similar inspection in 2019.
The trust, which employs more than 3,000 staff and provides care from 66 sites, said it accepted the governance findings and had taken action since the assessment. It provides services to autistic people, people with a learning disability and people with mental health needs.
Fire safety and oversight
Inspectors highlighted the number of fire-related incidents recorded by the trust. There were 27 between April 2024 and March 2025, followed by a further 24 between April and December 2025. The CQC said the figures showed the need for further action to improve fire safety arrangements.
The two figures cover periods of different lengths. The regulator described them as fire-related incidents; it did not give details in its announcement of the severity of each incident or say that they all resulted in injuries.
The CQC said findings from recent inspections of individual services showed that systems were not always effective in delivering high-quality care or ensuring that staff and leaders understood the issues. It said leaders needed to manage and reduce the identified risks more effectively and at a faster pace.
The assessment looked at leadership and culture across the trust. That trust-level judgment should not be confused with a separate rating for every ward or service: individual services can have their own inspection findings and ratings.
Staff and patient feedback
Inspectors also reported positive findings. They described leaders as compassionate and inclusive, and said they were committed to listening to staff and people using services. Most staff were confident their feedback, suggestions and concerns would be welcomed and could lead to improvements.
There were nevertheless areas of concern in the evidence about staff experience. The CQC said data indicated further improvement was needed in relation to reports of bullying and harassment. Union representatives described positive relationships with leaders but also raised concerns about leaders focusing on staff sickness rather than considering the wellbeing of colleagues still at work.
Feedback from partner organisations was mixed. Some regarded the board and senior leaders as strong and credible, while others questioned the trust’s focus and responsiveness to the needs of people using services.
The regulator said 75% of people who responded to a patient survey rated their care good or very good. Its announcement did not establish how representative those respondents were of everyone using the trust’s services.
Inspectors also noted work with community and voluntary organisations to address ethnic inequalities in mental health. The trust was an early implementer of a national framework intended to improve equality for patients and carers, with work on training and data collection still at an early stage.
Trust response
Nichola Sanderson, the trust’s director of nursing and professions, said the organisation was disappointed with the rating but recognised and accepted the governance findings. She said it had strengthened its governance arrangements and made improvements to service quality and patient safety since the assessment.
The trust said an additional system-led rapid quality review, involving NHS partners and the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, had considered the action taken and concluded that enough progress had been made to close that review process. That is the trust’s account of the separate review, not a new CQC rating.
The CQC said it would continue to monitor the trust. Sanderson acknowledged that more work remained and said the organisation would continue working with the regulator.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
