THE mother of a teenager who died under the care of under-fire Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said change would only come once the whole board had resigned.

In the space of 24 hours, both the chairman and a governor at the beleaguered trust stepped down after the publication of a scathing Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.

Dr Sara Ryan, whose son Connor Sparrowhawk died at the trust's Slade House unit in Headington three years ago, said she was "pleased" but not yet vindicated.

She added: "I am pleased there has been some movement at last. Hopefully others will follow suit; you have to look into yourself after a situation like this.

"A whole fresh start would be good. I'm not sure they can build up their credibility until they have a change at the top."

Last night health regulator NHS Improvement appointed a new chairman – Tim Smart – but embattled chief executive Katrina Percy remained in post with the trust reiterating there were no plans for her to resign.

Yesterday's CQC report said "opportunities had been missed" to learn from patient deaths and "effective arrangements had not been put in place" responding to patient safety concerns at its care units.

Dr Paul Lelliott, CQC chief inspector of hospitals and lead for mental health, said the CQC was still in urgent need of evidence "that this board is actively planning to protect patients in their care from the risk of harm".

Southern Health offers specialist mental health and learning disability services for people over five counties across the south of England, including Oxfordshire.

Last December NHS England's Mazars report found 722 trust patients had died unexpectedly over a four-year period, but just a fraction of the deaths were investigated.

The CQC report followed a warning to the trust earlier this month that "urgent action" had to be taken.

On Thursday afternoon trust chairman Mike Petter resigned, citing a "significant amount of scrutiny" and the need for new leadership to take forward improvements.

He was followed by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire representative on the trust's council of governors Mark Aspinall yesterday morning, who said the CQC's findings had left him "bitterly disappointed and concerned".

Both of Oxford's MPs – Andrew Smith and Nicola Blackwood – added to calls for the rest of the board and chief executive Katrina Percy to step down.

Mr Smith said: "The resignations of the chairman and the governor are effectively admissions of the board's incompetence. I believe the whole board should go."

NHS Improvement described the CQC report as "extremely disappointing".

Having recently changed Southern Health's license so it could intervene to make management changes, last night it used those powers to bring in Tim Smart as chairman following Mr Petter's resignation.

Mr Smart, who has been brought in as a troubleshooter, was chief executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for seven years.

He has been tasked with reviewing the trust's leadership and speeding up its improvement.

In a statement, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said: "In December 2015 we introduced improved processes for investigating deaths in the Trust, and the CQC found these to be promising, although at the time of the visit it was felt they would require more time to embed properly.

"A large amount of work has already taken place to ensure patient safety and quality care is delivered at every opportunity, and improvements will continue to be made.

"In the last two years millions has been spent on work to remove ligature risks across our sites. There are actions that can be completed relatively quickly, and some which are much longer projects which involve detailed planning."