Hope House Children's Hospice

Updated 6 April 2020

Hope House Children’s Hospice is operated by Hope House Children’s Hospices. The service opened in 1995. It is a charitable and NHS funded hospice near to Oswestry in Shropshire. The hospice primarily serves the communities of Shropshire, North and Mid Wales and Cheshire but accepts patient referrals from outside this area.

Hope House Hospice provides specialist care for support for children and young adults up to 25 years with a life limiting conditions. Care is provided both at the hospice and within the community such as their own home

The service has eight in-patient beds which provides end of life care including care after death symptom control and respite stays for babies, children, young people and their families,

Facilities within the hospice include: a hydrotherapy pool, sensory room, activity room with a separate area for study (which can be separated off when required), a young person’s lounge, dining room, music therapy room, separate family accommodation which include one area which can accommodate the child or young person and their family, and three additional family/ parent bedrooms.

A bereavement suite known as the Snowflake Suite includes a special, chilled bedroom for a child or young person to lie after their death.

There are extensive accessible gardens which include a sensory area with specially chosen plants, large play areas, outdoor space accessed from each patient bedroom and a separate outside area from the ‘Snowflake’ suite, a small lake and a specially constructed ‘farm’ area with metal animals.

Most of the care and support is provided in the hospice. Care and support is provided within patient’s homes and in hospital.

To support care in the community Hope House, have home care support nurses and workers, children specialist palliative care nurse, sibling support worker, transition nurse, neonatal nurse. In addition to nurses and health care support workers within the hospice a local GP practice provides medical care. The service also has an activity worker, counsellors which include bereavement counsellors, social workers, physiotherapists, an occupational therapist and a music therapist who provide care and support to children, young people and their loved ones.

The hospice provides telephone advice 24 hours a day seven days a week to families and healthcare professionals who may be either in the community or in hospital.

We inspected all services provided by the service.

The hospice has had a registered manager in post since 2017.

Updated 6 April 2020

Hope House Children’s Hospice is operated by Hope House Children’s Hospices.

The service provides care for children and young people and their families who have life limiting conditions and may only expect to live until early adult hood (up to 25 years old). We inspected services for children and young people.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced visit on 28 January 2020 and announced on the 29 January 2020.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we rate

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as Good overall.

The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

Staff provided good care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available seven days a week.

Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

Staff treated children, young people and their families with exceptional kindness and compassion and ensured their privacy and dignity were maintained at all times. Children, young people and their families and were fully empowered as active partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by an exceptional and distinctive service. Staff provided an exceptionally high level of emotional support to patients, families and carers to minimise their distress. They understood patients’ personal, cultural and religious needs. Feedback from people who use the service, those who are close to them and stakeholders was continually extremely positive about the way staff treated them. People thought that staff went the extra mile and their care and support exceeded their expectations.

The service planned and provided exceptional care with excellent facilities in a way that met the needs of local people and the communities served. It also worked with others in the wider system and local organisations to plan care. Children’s and young people’s care and support was planned proactively in partnership with them. Staff used innovative and individual ways of involving people so that they feel consulted, empowered, listened to and valued. For people in transition, specific support groups were available and in children’s hospices, links were made to antenatal services to support families where unborn babies have life-limiting conditions. Patients could immediately access the specialist palliative care service when they needed it. The service ensured children and their parents did not have to wait for end of life care and ensured they achieved their preferred place of care and death. People were actively encouraged to give their views and raise concerns or complaints. The service saw concerns and complaints as part of driving improvement. People’s feedback was valued and responses to the matters people raised were dealt with in an open, transparent and honest way. Investigations were comprehensive.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Heidi Smoult

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (Central Region)

Updated 6 April 2020

We rated this service as good overall. We rated as safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led as good.