A new top role has been created at the region’s beleaguered mental health trust to ensure improvements are being made.

Denise Grimes has been appointed as Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) first head of quality improvement.

It comes after the trust was rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission in October and placed into special measures for the second time.

Ms Grimes, who has worked for NSFT since qualifying as a mental health nurse around 30 years ago, will take responsibilty for embedding positive changes.

She will visit teams across NSFT to see what is working and what isn’t, and she will also connect with other trusts to learn about their improvement programmes.

Previously service operations manager with Norfolk Recovery Partnership, Ms Grimes comes to the new trust role after many years working in substance misuse.

“I am looking forward to my new role and the challenges it will bring,” said Ms Grimes. “We all want the same thing – to provide the very best care for service users.

“Now we need a focused effort to make certain we have the systems, processes and structures in place to enable us to do that. My new role aims to help us achieve those goals.

“I will be looking at the different ways in which we can embed quality improvement within our trust, and ensuring that it is consistent across both counties.

“We are committed to continual quality improvement in everything we do, with the service user and carer at the centre of the initiatives. That way, we will ensure we are getting the basics right first time, every time, so that we can deliver high quality, safe and sustainable services which meet the needs of the people of Norfolk and Suffolk and provide them with improved outcomes from their care.”