Melanie Leahy is challenging Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust over its safeguarding requirements.
A mental health trust in charge of looking after a young man who died while in its care has been challenged over why it is not meeting safeguarding requirements.
Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died while in Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (EPUT) care, has written voicing her own criticism.
EPUT’s CQC report in October was rated overall ‘good’. But it was criticised for its safeguarding procedure, for which it was rated ‘requires improvement’.
The report said the trust did not ensure that staff changed their practice following incidents.
Despite several methods used to communicate recommendations and learning, incidents with similar themes continued to occur.
Examples included: communication with other agencies, record keeping and methods of administering emergency care.
There were 12 outstanding action plans following incident investigations that required signing off to agree that changes had been made.
Staff had not reviewed 52 per cent of examples where clients died while using substance misuse services.
Cllr Andy Wood, who is appointed by the county council as a governor on EPUT, said: “As governors we are quite concerned that over the years they have good results.
“But everytime we look at the CQC, the same things keeps cropping up that it requires improvement on safeguarding and that has been happening for two or three years.
The trust is not learning from that. I and some of the other governors are going to make a point in finding out why safeguarding requires improvement.
“Mrs Leahy, whose son unfortunately died in the trust, has pointed that out to us. It needs to be sorted.”
In November 2012 20-year-old Matthew Leahy was found hanged in his room at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford.
Mrs Leahy, launched a petition asking parliament to debate her request for a full public inquiry into her son’s death, which reached the threshold of 100,000 signatures with just two hours to spare before the cut off at midnight on November 5.
She told the trust: “This latest report gives me absolutely no confidence that the trust has taken the deaths of so many on its wards seriously.
“If it had, changes needed would have been made immediately across the wards and this report and the evidence that is being sent in regularly, regarding sleeping staff on your wards and many other issues, would not be available.“
“I do not anticipate it very long before it is announced a further unnecessary inpatient death, on your wards.”
