Cambridgeshire’s mental health trust has been criticised by a health watchdog and threatened with enforcement action if it does not make improvements.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says Cambridgeshire and Peterbourough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is failing to meet five essential standards required of it and “won’t hesitate to use enforcement powers if improvements are not made swiftly”.

The concerns raised by the CQC included care plans failing to be “person centred”, a seclusion suite not meeting environmental or Mental Health Act requirements, less than robust incident reporting and auditing systems when it comes to safeguarding vulnerable people from abuse and a poor standard of decor in one ward which “does not promote the dignity and wellbeing of people using services”.

Staffing levels were also picked out as a problem area with “not always sufficient numbers of staff with the right competencies, knowledge, qualifications, skills and experience available to meet the needs of patients”.

But Jenny Raine, CPFT chief executive, said the trust was “extremely disappointed” by the conclusions of the CQC report, which was based on four visits made to the trust in december and January.

Ms Raine said: “We were surprised by the severity of their judgements which were different to their initial feedback.

“At no time were we threatened with enforcement actions. Indeed the CQC expressed their confidence in the trust’s ability to address the non-compliant areas.

“We have taken the findings very seriously and have taken immediate remedial actions. We knew that some of our ward environments needed improvement and this is part of an annual programme of redecoration planned before the CQC visits. Most of this work has now been completed.”