Buckinghamshire woman's 'decomposed body' found in flat

Police officers forced their way in to Ms T's home on 23 February, where they discovered her "badly decomposed body"

The body of a woman who was known to mental health services lay rotting in her home for months, a report said.

Buckinghamshire County Council and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust had not been in touch with the 34-year-old for 12 weeks prior to her corpse being found in February 2016.

An investigation by Buckinghamshire's Adult Safeguarding Board found the woman "fell into a void" due to a lack of communication between agencies.

The services have been told to improve.

The county council said a plan to provide better services was "nearing completion", the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

The investigation found the woman - named only as Ms T - lived alone in social housing and had been known to mental health services for "several years".

In the three months leading up to her death, a friend made several attempts to visit but contacted the authorities when she noticed a "strong smell" coming from the flat.

Buckinghamshire County Council is working on an action plan to improve healthcare services in the county

Police forced their way in to Ms T's home on 23 February, where they discovered her "badly decomposed body".

The coroner was unable to establish an exact cause of death as the decay was so advanced.

Ms T, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2011, was not in regular contact with her family.

She was in contact with the mental health early intervention scheme, the council's safeguarding adult services, her GP and housing association at various points from October 2014 to November 2015.

The report said that if a formal safeguarding concern had been raised in October or November 2015, "there could well have been a very different outcome".

Buckinghamshire County Council and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust must present action plans to the board in December following the report's recommendations to improve services.