CQC investigates its own response to concerns over troubled service

The CQC has asked its head of inspection for child and justice services, Nigel Thompson, to examine its response to concerns that were raised about an autism service in south Staffordshire in 2019.

Concerns were reported directly to the CQC in early 2019, by parents of children under the services, while similar issues were highlighted in a report from the local Healthwatch branch last July.

An external report carried out by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust, in 2018, also warned that potentially suicidal children with autism were being put at risk. The accuracy of the findings were disputed by private provider Midlands Psychology, which jointly ran the service with Midlands Partnership FT.

In September 2019, the CQC gave Midlands Psychology a “good” rating, while Midlands Partnership FT’s children’s community mental health services were rated “requires improvement” two months earlier.

In a statement, the CQC said: “Following concerns raised with us by families, in relation to The Hayes autism service run by Midlands Psychology, we are looking at the evidence we received about this service and how we assessed this to inform our regulatory response.

“We are looking into these concerns in accordance with our complaints process. As a learning organisation, we welcome all feedback and we have already met with some of the families, but some meetings have been delayed due to the covid-19 pandemic.”

Midlands Partnership FT and Midlands Psychology were approached for comment. Midlands Psychology referred HSJ to its previous statements defending its service and challenging the factual accuracy of the previous external review.

Earlier this year, NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned an external review into Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups’ management and overview of its autism services.

This came after an HSJ investigation found the CCG had admitted it paid “minimal” oversight to the service despite senior executives admitting in 2016 it was “not adequate and not fit for purpose”.

The national bodies are also investigating the circumstances around the CCG’s procurement of a new autism service. This follows events in September last year when the commissioner gave Midlands Psychology 30 days to hand over the contract to MPFT.

The NHS trust has since been awarded a new permanent contract to provide the services for 0 to 25-year-olds in March this year.

In May the trust announced it had subcontracted local charity Caudwell Children Autism Service, and Kent based provider Psicon to carry out additional assessments to help reduce the backlog of assessments.