NHS staff in South Cumbria with “unease” about the transfer of services to a trust in Lancashire will be getting visits from top health bosses to allay their concerns.

Mental health services run by Cumbria Partnership Foundation Trust switch to Lancashire Care Foundation Trust from October.

The services will be provided locally but the management is changing.

Concerns have been raised about the process at a meeting of the Cumbria Health and Wellbeing Board.

It follows the Lancashire trust being found to “require improvement” by regulators, although its mental health services were ranked “good”.

Helen Horne, chairwoman for the patient champions group, Cumbria Healthwatch, told the meeting NHS staff were “extremely concerned”.

She said: “It’s also the fact that this (decision) hasn’t had to go out to consultation because it’s just a change of contract, rather than a change of service. The noise in the system is one of unease. That’s the ripples we are getting.”

Professor Robin Talbot, chairman of CPFT, told the meeting that Lancashire Care was now run by a new chief executive, Caroline Donovan.

He said: “Over the next couple of weeks, both the chief executive of the CPFT, Stephen Eames and I are visiting both Kendal and Barrow in order to talk to staff. We have reached an amicable solution and one where we can see a road to improvement in terms of services across South Cumbria.”

Anthony Gardner, lead director for mental health services on the Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group, added: “It’s particularly important for this board to understand that there is a commitment to ongoing improvement work associated with the transfer.” “There are very good services delivered in Lancashire and very good services delivered in Cumbria as well, and the intention is to keep the best of those and learn from those,” said Mr Gardner. The transfer needed “to deliver” for patients in both counties, he added.

Cllr Stewart Young, chairman of the board, said: “Everybody’s aware of the concerns, not least because of the past performance of Lancashire Care. What we all want is to get the right services to the quality we want.”

Cllr Anne Burns, the county council cabinet member for children’s services, said: “It’s our people in South Cumbria and Lancashire that are going through this. We want to offer the best service we can and we want to work with you. We know there have been changes at the top but we don’t want anything disrupting the service that’s being delivered to people out there.”