The trust was formed in November 2024 following the merger of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

The mental health wards for working age adults and PICU were previously rated good at both trusts, in February 2022 and January 2023, respectively.

This was the first inspection of the wards under the single assessment framework under the newly formed trust.

It was carried out in part to follow up a number of deaths and serious incidents at the services when they were run by separate trusts and after the creation of NLFT to see if lessons had been learnt and improvements made. 

Jane Ray, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said: ‘When we inspected these wards, we were concerned to find the trust didn't always provide care that was safe or personalised to people's needs.'

While noting some lessons had been learnt from serious incidents, the CQC said there was more to do with staff not always carrying out observations safely or checking on people regularly while they were in seclusion.

Some safeguarding incidents had not been reported, including assaults between people in the service, and some people said there were times when they did not feel there were enough staff which made them feel unsafe.

Inappropriate blanket restrictions were found with some wards not having access to hot or cold drinks and snacks without asking staff.

There were also incidents with medicine management with inspectors seeing one incident in which staff failed to administer insulin to a person with diabetes.

Staff were ‘passionate' about quality improvement projects, however, including a programme to reduce medication errors.

Chief nursing and allied health professions officer Manny Gnanaraj said: ‘As a newly formed trust, NLFT has done a great deal of work since its formal establishment in November 2024 to ensure that the very best aspects of our predecessor organisations and component services are used as the benchmark for the quality of care, safety and experience of our patients and their families. Our community deserves nothing less than the very best.'

Gnanaraj noted the report's confirmation important safety aspects had been prioritised, including identifying and reporting areas of concern, holding safety huddles and having robust reviews of all reported incidents.

‘We know we have further to go but I am confident that we are in a good place to move forward further and faster with this vital work,' Gnanaraj said.