POLITICIANS are today due to challenge leaders of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust in the wake of a damning report uncovering “serious failings” in the organisation.

Senior executives from the trust are due to be quizzed by Hampshire County Council chiefs at the county’s health and adult social care select committee in The Castle, Winchester.

It comes a week after trust medical director Dr Lesley Stevens insisted they had made “real changes” since the release of an independent report which accused the trust of “serious failings” in the way it investigated the deaths of hundreds of people with mental health problems and learning difficulties.

Politicians are likely to challenge bosses on findings revealed in the NHS England-commissioned Mazars report – a week after fellow politicians grilled executives at theSouthampton City Council health scrutiny meeting.

It also follows teams from health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) launching a “focused inspection” into the trust and have began visiting its centres across the region.

The Mazars inquiry revealed that of the 10,306 deaths between April 2011 and March 2015, 722 were categorised as unexpected but only 272 had been investigated.

The report looked into the deaths of people who has been in contact with the organisation at least once in the previous year.

It criticised the reporting of the deaths rather than the standard of the care.

The trust has been hit by a series of recent scandals.

They include the threat of legal action from the family of Winchester University student advisor Louise Locke.

Miss Locke, 44, was found hanged at her home in Highcliffe, Winchester, on May 27 last year – a day after her pleas to be be admitted to hospital were turned down.

The trust has said it has implemented a series of measures to improve the reporting of deaths and has brought in other changes since Miss Locke’s death.

A former trust health and safety practitioner Mike Holder claimed he flagged up serious concerns at the trust four years ago when he warned of “dysfunctional” management systems and “haphazard” record-keeping during his time there in November 2011 and February 2012.

His claims – later set out in a 13-page report – included accusations that incidents were always being reported and those that were often incorrectly graded, downgraded or closed down without action plans completed.