BPAS - Merseyside

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

This means we looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to good.

Good: This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect, and involved as partners in their care.

Staff treated women with kindness, empathy and compassion. Women’s privacy and dignity was respected. Staff understood that the women’s experience of how they were treated and supported mattered. We found the service made every effort to take women’s wishes into account and respect their choices, to achieve the best possible outcome.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

We scored the service as 3. The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with patients showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing patients with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, condition and treatment.

Staff directed patients to other services when appropriate and supported them to access those services.

We reviewed 8 patient records and 2 prescription charts. Records we reviewed showed staff had completed assessments with a non-judgemental attitude when caring for or discussing women with mental health needs and signposting to appropriate services. We saw evidence of women being offered counselling services through BPAS to discuss their decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Staff understood the individual needs of patients, including personal, cultural, social and religious needs. Staff understood the demographics of the local community and worked with local services to support the women using the service.

Feedback from women who used the service said how kind and empathetic staff were. Women were offered a chaperone for support if wanted. Feedback for the chaperone service was very positive and women said how lovely, helpful and caring they were.

Treating people as individuals

We scored the service as 3. The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

There were no restrictions to patients requiring care. The service was a registered charity and if patients did not meet NHS funding requirements, the service could provide care and see to patients additional needs to ensure they were safe and received the right care.

Women’s individual needs and preferences were understood and reflected in their care, treatment and support. Women were offered appointments at a time to suit them. Women were offered different treatment options to reflect their gestation of pregnancy.

If women were anxious, they could sit in a quieter waiting area. Staff acknowledged and respected diversity and supported women individually. The service gave examples of supporting women from different ethnic backgrounds, neurodiversity and disability.

As part of the assessment process women were asked about their cultural, social, religious and access needs so these could be reflected in their care plan.

Feedback from women using the service said staff were understanding, empathetic, felt comfortable and safe.

We scored the service as 3. The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Women were in control of planning their care and support. They could be supported by a relative, friend or partner and staff made sure they were involved.

If women were considering adoption as an alternative to termination treatment counselling support was offered. Information was provided about adoption, and a referral could be made to the social care team to support the woman through the adoption process.

Women could access appointments at different locations depending on the appointment type.

Feedback from women using the service said staff were amazing and supportive and made them feel comfortable.

We scored the service as 4. The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific issue, such as venous thromboembolism (VTE). They risk assessed every patient against a list of conditions and took the necessary precautions before, during and after surgical abortion treatment.

Staff identified and responded to changing risks to patients. Staff provided information of what symptoms to look out for to signal post-treatment complications such as retained products of conception and how to contact BPAS urgently for advice and treatment. This could be confirmed by ultrasound scan at the unit.

We saw staff had documented patients’ symptoms and scan findings and actions taken in the patient record. Actions included contacting the local hospital and ambulance service to arrange an urgent transfer to hospital. The hospital was contacted in advance to ensure the patient would receive treatment immediately on arrival rather than wait in the emergency department.

Staff understood many women would benefit from ongoing counselling and ensured this was offered to all women who attended the service. Staff explained women could access this service when they needed it.

Staff responded quickly to the immediate needs of women, whether this was emotional distress or clinical emergencies.

Staff directed women to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. Staff gave several examples of this, including calling the police.

We scored the service as 3. The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff told us they loved working at the service and saw positive changes following the appointment of the new registered manager who was appointed following our last inspection. Staff gave examples of individual support provided from the registered manager and the provider.

Staff were encouraged to report any anti-abortion behaviour, and these would be logged as incidents. They could raise concerns about disrespectful, abusive behaviour or attitudes toward service users without fear of the consequences.

Staff were given access to a range of services designed to promote their health and wellbeing. This included eye care vouchers, healthcare cash plans, discounted gym membership, travel insurance and personal accident insurance.

Staff could access support during and after dealing with a difficult situation from managers, the safeguarding team and senior management.

The service supported staff to be at work and during periods of absence. Reasonable adjustments were made to improve their work experience.

There was an internal occupational health department, and staff could seek support for work related and on-work related issues through an employee assistance service. The employee assistance service was an independent service that could offer one to one counselling support for staff.

Staff appraisals included conversations about career development and how they could be supported. Staff were able to develop and further their careers.