A HEAVILY criticised healthcare trust where 722 people died unexpectedly over a four year period is making 'significant improvements', inspectors have said.

But the trust still needs to do more, including when dealing with risk assessments.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust was given a warning notice by watchdog the Care Quality Commuission (CQC) after inspectors visited in January.

It followed a report at the end of last year that revealed a large number of the unexplained deaths were not properly investigated.

Connor Sparrowhawk was one of those who died when he was in the care of the trust and drowned in a bath at Slade House in Headington in July 2013 after having an epileptic fit.

The chief executive at the time, Katrina Percy, has since quit after mounting pressure and a new inspection has found improvements at the trust.

A new inspection was carried out in September and a report on the findings was released today.

The inspection team said there had been 'a number of significant improvements made to the governance arrangements' and that the new leadership team 'demonstrated clearer recognition of the need to drive through and complete the work to assess, manage and prioritise a range of patient safety issues'.

The trust was deemed to have taken sufficient action to meet the requirements set out in the warning notice.

But inspectors also noted that there was 'still significant work to do' and highlighted the fact that some ward fixtures and fittings 'could be used as ligature anchor points'.

Staff were also found to not always manage the separation of men and women well and there were not always enough staff to observe all areas of a ward.

The trust was told to ensure better consistency in relation to the quality and detail of risk assessments across the wards and to complete plans to improve and make safe the range of environments across mental health and learning disabilities services.