Independent review – Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Update on the Assurance Review of the actions taken by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT commenced following the publication of the Independent Review into the care and treatment provided by the trust published in January 2024.
On 22 November 2022, NHS England North West wrote to Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT (GMMH), to inform the trust it would be commissioning an Independent Review into the failings within the Trust’s services, reported at the Edenfield Centre, and the failure within the organisation to appropriately manage concerns and mitigate against patient harm. This followed concerns raised by patients, their families, and staff, some of which were presented through the media.
The review was commissioned with the aim of understand what had gone wrong in the organisation and to make recommendations to prevent reoccurrence, and to bring clarity and reassurance to patients, their families, and staff, as well as the broader public, in respect of the ongoing safety of services that the Trust delivers.
NHS England asked Professor Oliver Shanley OBE to lead the Independent Review, as the Independent Chair. Professor Shanley OBE is a senior leader with over 30 years’ experience of working in several mental health settings.
The Terms of Reference for the Independent Review were developed in full by Professor Shanley, and included collaboration with a significant number of patients, service users, families and staff as well as NHS England North West’s Regional Team.
The patient failings at The Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, were reported extensively by BBC Panorama following an undercover investigation and were the main focus of the Independent Review. In addition, the review also looked at the trust’s other medium and low secure services and included reviews of ward to board escalation and oversight of patient safety and staff culture.
The Independent Review commenced in February 2023 and published in January 2024 and is available here.
The purpose of an NHS England-commissioned independent review is to discover what led to an adverse event and to audit the standard of care provided to an individual or by an organisation to a wider group. The Independent Review into the care and treatment provided by the trust was a system-based approach to understand what went wrong at the trust and how the organisation and system partners could learn from that in order to deliver better care in the future.
As part of the process of any Independent Review, NHS England will commission the chair to undertake an Assurance Review at an agreed period following the publication of the initial Independent Review focussed on the actions that have been progressed and implemented in response to the recommendations made in the Independent Review. The NHS England-commissioned assurance review is primarily a desk top based review examining any evidence of improvement in relation to the recommendations made in the report published in 2024. This will include some focussed conversations and a site test visit to evaluate the impact of the trust and system partners response to the initial report.
The work on that Assurance Review has now begun and is expected to be completed in Autumn 2025. We will be working closely with the Chair and his team to ensure they are well-sighted on the changes we have made across the trust over the last few years, and the ways we have embedded the recommendations made in the Independent Review.
An Independent Review into the care and treatment provided by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust: Published January 2024
This is the final report of the Independent Review into the care and treatment provided by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, following failings within the trust’s services, reported at the Edenfield Centre, and the failure within the organisation to escalate concerns and mitigate against patient harm.
This report was commissioned by NHS England following concerns raised by patients, their families, and staff, some of which were presented through the media.
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This document is also available in Easy Read.
Background
On 22 November 2022, NHS England North West wrote to Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT (GMMH), to inform the trust it would be commissioning an Independent Review into the failings within the Trust’s services, reported at the Edenfield Centre, and the failure within the organisation to appropriately manage concerns and mitigate against patient harm. This followed concerns raised by patients, their families, and staff, some of which were presented through the media.
The review was commissioned with the aim of understand what had gone wrong in the organisation and to make recommendations to prevent reoccurrence, and to bring clarity and reassurance to patients, their families, and staff, as well as the broader public, in respect of the ongoing safety of services that the Trust delivers.
NHS England asked Professor Oliver Shanley OBE to lead the Independent Review, as the Independent Chair. Professor Shanley OBE is a senior leader with over 30 years’ experience of working in several mental health settings. He originally qualified as a mental health nurse, working in a variety of clinical settings including forensic mental health services. Throughout his career Professor Shanley has focussed on improving the quality of services. He is committed to ensuring that people with a lived experience are central to decision making in mental health services. He has worked in executive leadership roles since 2003 including the Chief Nurse for London and a Chief Executive of a mental health provider. He attained a Doctorate at Kings College London in 2012 and was appointed Visiting Professor to the University of Hertfordshire in 2014. In the 2016 New Year’s Honours list Professor Shanley was awarded an OBE for services to mental health and learning disability nursing.
The Terms of Reference for the Independent Review were developed in full by Professor Shanley, and included collaboration with a significant number of patients, service users, families and staff as well as NHS England North West’s Regional Team.
The patient failings at The Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, were reported extensively by BBC Panorama following an undercover investigation and were the main focus of the Independent Review. In addition, the review also looked at the trust’s other medium and low secure services and included reviews of ward to board escalation and oversight of patient safety and staff culture.
The Independent Review commenced in February 2023 and published in January 2024.
This information is also available in Easy Read format.
NHS England and the Trust have arranged support for patients, families, and staff via the Greater Manchester Resilience Hub: www.penninecare.nhs.uk/gmrh
Terms of Reference – Independent Review of Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Updated 25 May 2023
The following terms of reference are for an independent review regarding failings of care and treatment provided to patients at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, with the Edenfield Centre being the primary focus of the review.
This information is available in Easy Read format.
Update from Professor Oliver Shanley OBE – June 2023
This update is available here.
Update from Professor Oliver Shanley OBE – October 2023
This update is available here.
Update from Professor Oliver Shanley OBE – December 2023
This update is available here.