A healthcare trust has been praised for making ‘significant improvement’ to services.

Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust has been rated ‘good’ overall by CQC after an inspection found that concerns raised on previous visits had been addressed.

Inspectors visited the trust in December but the report has only been made public today (Friday).

It comes after the trust was rated ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection by the watchdog in 2015, with a further visit the following year finding that, while services were caring, improvement was still needed in providing safe, responsive, effective and well led care.

The trust is now rated as ‘good’ for being effective, caring, responsive and well led, and remains rated as ‘requires Improvement’ for being safe.

The new report has been welcomed by senior staff at Dorset HealthCare.

Acting chief executive Eugine Yafele said: “We welcome the report by the CQC and are delighted that our overall rating has improved to good, and we are particularly pleased that some services have also been rated as outstanding. This is great news for patients, carers, staff and our partners and demonstrates our commitment to delivering high quality care.”

Andy Willis, chairman of Dorset HealthCare, added: “This is a testament to the hard work of our staff, and their desire to continually improve services for our patients. No organisation can change to meet the challenges of tomorrow if staff are not prepared to innovate and develop what they do. Dorset HealthCare has made tremendous progress in recent years, and we will continue striving to provide the best services possible.”

Inspectors found that in child and adolescent mental health wards, areas of concern raised at previous inspections had been addressed. Staff on the wards had gone further than required in making the changes, with a focus on the well-being and recovery of young people. This included staff working with children and young people to create care plans that were meaningful to them. There was also a strong emphasis on young people being part of the community.

Throughout wards for end of life care inspectors identified a more open and transparent culture, with a positive impact on patient care and staff morale. Staff were supported to report incidents, including near misses and continual learning was encouraged.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “Since we inspected services at Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust in June 2015 the organisation has worked to ensure that improvements have been embedded. I am pleased that the trust has taken to heart the findings from our previous inspection reports and built on them to provide improved services to the people of Dorset, particularly in Child and adolescent mental health wards which we have rated as Outstanding.

“Some concerns remain, including ligature points on some of the acute mental health wards which had not been identified or dealt with effectively and some medicines were not always being managed in a safe way at a small number of services inspected. However, we found a readiness to discuss safety, and continual learning was encouraged, with staff being supported to report incidents, including near misses.”