A CUMBRIAN health trust has been told it still requires improvement after receiving an inspection by a national watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust was lacking in how safe, effective, responsive and well led it was.

The trust, which employs around 4,000 staff, provides more than 60 community and mental health services to a population of over half a million people.

CQC inspectors found that not all patient records were up to date, not all staff had completed required training and long waiting times were a problem.

The CQC’s deputy chief inspector Dr Paul Lelliott, said he was disappointed that the trust had not made more improvements since the last inspection in March 2016.

"This is reflected in the fact that we have once again rated it as requires improvement overall," he said. “This inspection was undertaken while the trust was undergoing major change, with new appointments at the top of the organisation. I am encouraged that the leadership team is working closely with neighbouring providers on plans to improve services to people in Cumbria."

One of those major changes was the appointment of Stephen Eames as the trust's chief executive, who has said he is 'confident' of achieving a good rating within 12 months.

"The report clearly identified the areas where significant improvements are required," Mr Eames said. "Key to this is the integration of health and care services across north and south Cumbria and the rapid development of Integrated Care Communities (ICCs).

"This will enable us to align mental health services locally with the ICCs and for the more specialist services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and forensic medicine, to form strong partnerships with large providers in the North East and Lancashire."

“I will now be driving this work forward and closely monitoring performance against the improvements we need to make. I’m confident with the solid foundations we have, we can achieve a good rating within the next 12 months.”

There was some praise for the trust within the report as it was rated 'good' for how caring it is and positive feedback from relatives and patients was noted.

Meanwhile, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron has expressed fears that the local mental health service is even worse than it looks.

“When we commissioned our report into young people's mental health provision in South Lakeland we found that the biggest problem was that young people with mental health problems and their parents don’t know where to go to get help in the first place," he said.

“The CQC didn’t even look into that issue for this report – which means that the local services are even worse than they look.”

“Young people with mental health services are continuing to be let down and I will work with the trust in whatever way I can to right this devastating wrong.”