Healthcare Commission: NHS staff need adult protection training

The Healthcare Commission has critcised NHS trusts for having a poor understanding of adult protection procedures, in a report today.

In a review of 13 investigations it has carried out since 2004, including those into failings in learning disability services in Cornwall and south London, the watchdog said lack of understanding was a “serious problem”.

It highlighted as a common trend trusts’ failure to deliver basic quality, care and safety, saying they are concentrating too much on the delivery of targets.

Poor leadership was indentified as a serious problem in nearly all the investigations carried out by the commission. Among its recommendations are that senior managers should actively elicit views about safety from frontline staff and that board and senior managers must allocate time to look at whether they are meeting the needs of vulnerable patients.

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