MORE work needs to be done before learning disability services can be transferred from an under-fire NHS trust, according to health leaders.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s £5.5m contract to provide adult learning disability services in Oxfordshire would end on December 31 it was agreed last year.

The trust will see a number of services stripped away from it after a damning report into deaths of patients under its care, including 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk who drowned in a bath.

But Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust's chief executive Stuart Bell said more work needed to be done before services can be transferred.

He told the board of directors today that the trust needed to be confident staff had enough training and there was enough capacity to take over the learning disability service.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Bell would not speculate about the future of Southern Health, but said his contingency plans were being put in place to cover all eventualities.

He added: "Part of the work that needs to be done is working out what do we think the impact of this is going to be.

"We need to be confident that what we have been asked to so is a model of care that makes sense and the funding for it is right.

"One of the big issues from the Southern Health, Ridgeway story, is you really need to manage that transition properly."

Southern Health has been repeatedly slammed after a number of damning reports from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since Mr Sparrowhawk's death at Slade House in Headington in 2013.

The Mazars report also revealed in December how 722 people had died unexpectedly while in contact with the trust over four years.

The learning disability specialist health services have been stripped from the beleaguered trust and will be passed to Oxford Health in December 2017.