In an inspection of acute awards Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge and the Cavell Centre in Peterborough, the CQC noted staff did not feel reporting incidents would result in any change.

The trust's acute wards were rated requires improvement overall and requires improvement for safe. The service was rated requires improvement for safe and good for effective, caring and responsive.

Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of operations in the East of England, said: ‘When we inspected the trust's acute wards, we found the service hadn't made all the improvements we recommended at our last inspection in October 2022 to keep people safe. The service wasn't always sharing lessons from safety incidents between different wards, and we found observation records weren't always updated accurately or quickly, risking people's needs being missed.'

The CQC also found staffing shortages and a lack of training for some staff members but noted the service was carrying out a proactive recruitment campaign.

Most people said staff were kind and supportive. The regulator also noted staff provided person centred care adapted to people's needs.

Rachel Gomm, interim chief nurse at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘It is important to acknowledge the progress that has been made since the last inspection by the Care Quality Commission. Our staff have worked incredibly hard to improve the care and treatment available on our inpatient mental health wards.

‘While we fully accept there is still work to do, it is my firm belief that we are heading in the right direction. The support we offer to patients and their families is key, and we appreciate the many kind and supportive comments patients have made about their daily interactions with our staff.

‘Inpatient mental health care is an important part of our organisation's work, alongside this we also provide community mental health treatment for adults, children's mental health services, community physical health care for older people and those with long term conditions, children's health services, learning disability services and conduct ground-breaking research. Our overall CQC rating remains good.

'Any form of discrimination and abuse directed towards our staff is completely unacceptable. We continue to work with colleagues to encourage them to report all incidents so action can be taken.'