Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps Kent and Medway NHS trust has taken to ensure the safe and effective treatment of patients since the Care Quality Commission reports on that trust and the case of Callie Lewis.

The Trust has confirmed that, after the death of Callie Lewis in the summer of 2018, it has updated its suicide prevention training to include a section on autism. It has released a new strategy, under which suicide prevention training is a mandatory, annual requirement for all staff in inpatient, liaison psychiatry and crisis settings. The Trust has also included in its training materials information about the harm that suicide forums pose to vulnerable people.

We would expect a National Health Service trust and its responsible clinical commissioning group to ensure the effectiveness of any actions taken to improve and increase safety in a trust’s services. In addition, the Care Quality Commission is responsible for monitoring and inspecting all health care services. It continues to discuss the implementation of the Trust’s improvements at regular engagement meetings and will consider these at future inspections.