Community health services in Huntingdonshire have been rated as ‘good’ following a series of inspections.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an assessment in May of the Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, which is responsible for services including the children’s Holly Ward and the Special Care Baby Unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, along with district and specialist nursing, community matrons, and community rehabilitation.

It also provides services in Luton and Suffolk.

Inspectors reviewed services against five key questions – whether they were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. All were rated as ‘good’, while the safety of services was judged to ‘require improvement’.

The CQC’s report states: “We were pleased to find many areas of very good practice across all core service areas.

“Staff took an active role in delivering and promoting safety, learning and improvement. There was a clear picture of safety across most services.

“However, in isolated areas there were inadequate infection prevention and control ­procedures and medicines management.

“Staffing establishments were actively reviewed but were not sufficient in all areas. Some staff teams were stretched and unable to meet people’s needs in a timely way. The provider had in place strategies to manage risks and improve recruitment.

“People using the services were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. People were ­consistently positive about their experiences of receiving care.”

Matthew Winn, chief executive of the trust, said: “The trust board is delighted with the findings. Overall, the CQC assessed our services as ‘good’ and found a wide range of evidence which demonstrated how our dedicated staff consistently provided high quality care to patients.”

Mandy Renton, chief nurse at the trust, added: “Two ­pre-existing CQC compliance issues (assessing and monitoring the quality of services at HQ and staffing levels on our children’s inpatient ward at Hinchingbrooke Hospital) were both assessed as compliant.

“This is fantastic validation for staff and reflects the CQC’s ­findings of good clinical leadership throughout the trust.

“Children’s services, ­community services for adults, end of life care, dentistry and minor injury units were all judged to be good as was the trust’s performance in providing caring, effective, responsive and well-led services.

“There are three areas where the CQC has identified actions that require improvement. Action plans are already under way – or complete – to address these and will be audited for compliance in the coming weeks and months.”

The trust said it was working to develop effective recruitment, caseload management and staff support strategies to ensure ­satisfactory staffing in ­community nursing teams in response ­following a CQC concern.