Monthly column: Andrew Morgan, chief executive

It is always a great honour to be able to represent local NHS services and our team at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust, but it has been even more so over the last couple of weeks.

We are very proud to have been rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following visits from inspectors in June and July of this year.

They looked at whether our trust was well led and at the care delivered by a number of our core services including adult community services, children and young people’s services, community inpatient services and urgent care services.

So what does this mean to you and why is it important?

We are doing all we can to put Lincolnshire on the map and highlight the great work we have going on. We are only the second community NHS trust nationally to be awarded this rating and hope it will strengthen our position in advocating the county as a place to lead the development of new services and innovative practice, as well as an attractive place to live, work and train our brightest talent.

You have likely seen our staff in almost every town and village in Lincolnshire; they’re on the road every day caring for people at home, in local clinics or in our community hospitals in Spalding, Gainsborough, Skegness and Louth.

This ‘Outstanding’ rating, provided by an independent, external regulator, shows the fantastic quality of care we provide and our commitment to always strive to be better.

This includes accepting the small number of areas in our report where the CQC has recommended we make improvements, which we are addressing without delay.

Finally, a thank you to the almost 2,000 staff who have made this rating possible and are outstanding at what they do. They show unwavering care, commitment and dedication, which can be seen in the numerous examples of outstanding practice identified by the CQC’s inspection team. I am very proud to be their Chief Executive.

The report is available in full at cqc.org.uk.