Position Statement 21/22

Shane Mills

Director of Quality and Mental Health / Learning Disabilities

I write this foreword in June 2022, when services are slowly recovering from the significant pressure and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic subsides, the QAIS has fully returned to its normal quality monitoring process.

I am pleased to see 100% of hospital placements were with ‘3Q’ providers for the second year running. We note the lengths of stay in hospital increased slightly last year, probably as a result of disrupted pathways. We also note that slightly more patients were placed in England last year but we are working with providers to increase quality and capacity of services within Wales.

We are pleased to see an 11% decrease in the number of incidents in our Framework hospitals since last year, but are disappointed to see an increase in complaints and safeguarding referrals and we will be working with providers to address this. We note that costs increased significantly last year and will be working with providers to try and mitigate future cost increases whilst maintaining standards and capacity.

We now have more placements on our care home Framework than on our hospital Framework and are pleased to see many Local Authorities use the Framework more in the last year. We are pleased that 2 out 3 care home placements are within 10 miles of a residents chosen significant postcode.

This is our last annual position statement on our current decade old National framework as we move, in 2022, onto our new framework. The new framework is more outcome-focused and intelligence-led and we are excited that it will support the QAIS to work in partnership with citizens, providers and commissioners to ensure safe and high quality services continue to be delivered for the people of Wales whilst supporting further improvements in standards of care.