Celebrations are underway as the rating of the trust providing mental heath care for Havering’s residents has been upgraded by inspectors.

North East London NHS Foundation Trust (Nelft) overall rating has been raised from “requires improvement” to “good” following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

After inspections in October and November last year, the regulator said the trust had made improvements in line with previous recommendations.

NELFT was rated as ‘good’ overall as well as receiving the same rating in four of the CQC’s categories, which rate whether services are caring, effective, responsive and well-led.

There are still some areas where the trust needed to make changes to achieve a “good” rating in the safe category, including ensuring all staff had completed mandatory training.

Inspectors also noted that call alarm systems were not in place at specialist community mental health services for children and young people.

In September 2016, following a critical inspection, the trust closed Brookside, the adolescent mental health unit, temporarily to make improvements and it reopened in March last year.

Now CQC inspectors said they found a number of examples of outstanding practice across the trust - most significantly at Brookside where, in an 18 month period, the ratings for the service has improved from inadequate to outstanding.

In the report, inspectors noted that “the trust had shown vision and strong leadership in reviewing the model of the service being provided.”

In the report, Dr Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector of hospitals and CQC lead for mental health, praised the trust’s efforts to improve conditions following the 2016 inspection.

He said: “There was evidence of some fine improvements to the standard of care at Nelft.

“While there are some areas where improvements still need to be made generally I am pleased with the progress made here and want to see it to continue in the future.”

John Brouder, NELFT chief executive, added: “I am proud of the dedication and commitment of all our staff who have been working hard to continuously improve the services we provide and this is recognised in our CQC rating of ‘good’.

“We strive to deliver the best care by the best people and this is a significant step towards our overall ambition to be rated as outstanding.

“It is tremendously important for us to reflect on our achievements and improvements across the trust, but I am conscious that we must not rest on our laurels.

“We want to ensure we deliver consistently high-quality care across the communities we serve and we are continuing on our improvement journey.

“I would like to thank every member of staff who has helped us to reach this point and I know their passion for delivering the best possible patient care has now been recognised by our regulator.”

Joe Fielder, NELFT Chair, praised the efforts of staff and added that the trust would now be working towards an outstanding rating.

He said: “Moving from a CQC rating of “requires improvement” to “good” in a relatively short space of time demonstrates the actions we have taken across the trust to make improvements.

“This is important recognition as it reassures our local communities that we are delivering high-quality care.

“As well as the incredible efforts of all our staff, I would also like to recognise the contribution of our patients, governors, commissioners and our local health and social care partners, who have supported us to achieve a good rating.

“As chair of the trust, I am heartened by the outcome of the latest CQC inspection and look forward to ensuring that we work towards an outstanding rating in the future.”