Spirit House

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

We looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. This was the first inspection for this service since its registration with CQC. This key question has been rated as outstanding.

This service scored 89 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a very clear vision ‘to make healthcare easy, accessible and affordable for everyone.’ They had an award-winning culture that demonstrated their values ‘brilliance, family and vigour.’ They remained focused, accountable and resilient. Leaders were confident these values were what made a positive difference in people’s care. The service developed their own mandatory internal training course that all employees completed about the culture at Spirit. The service promoted a positive, compassionate, listening culture. They established an event called ‘Spirit Fest’ that offered staff a chance to collaborate with colleagues across different departments, strengthening communication and teamwork. This event fostered a sense of community and recognition within the team, while being described as a fun and engaging event that boosted morale. This event aligned with the organisation’s vision, enhanced the understanding of key priorities, and gave staff the opportunity to contribute ideas and feedback. New ideas were explored to drive positive impact to benefit people’s health and wellbeing. Staff shared the following examples that led to positive change; Due to the hybrid model for pulmonary rehabilitation, there needed to be more clarity about ‘in-office’ days to ensure better planning and co ordination. In response to this, leaders created a rota that outlined everyone’s designated office days in advance. This change helped improve communication, reduce confusion, and ensure a smoother balance between remote and in-office work ensuring patient care was optimised. Another example shared with us was that staff requested more streamlined record-keeping and documentation. Therefore, more time efficient systems were put in place to reduce errors and allowed the team more time to focus on patient care.

The service had exceptionally inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. We received positive feedback from staff that described their managers as approachable, understanding, and ensured they had the resources and support needed to perform their role effectively. Staff told us that leaders modelled the values of the organisation and felt supported by management. Leaders were described as approachable and staff felt comfortable raising questions or concerns as they had confidence it would be dealt with appropriately without judgement. The organisation held meetings that enabled all employees to talk to the chief executive to ask them questions. The chief executive was described as a very popular and accessible individual who had created a positive environment that was reflected through the staff. The service shared their findings with us from their own internal staff survey. Findings showed that 97% of staff agreed that their manager cared about how satisfied they were in their job.

The service fostered a positive culture where staff felt they could speak up and have their voice heard. Everyone was actively encouraged and enabled to speak up safely. The practice had a whistleblowing policy and had appointed two freedom to speak up guardians. The guardians worked alongside staff to support them and encourage an open and transparent place to work. The service had developed a system called ‘Elevate’ which was a platform for staff to raise ideas or concerns so they could be actioned.

The service valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them. There were policies and procedures to promote equality and diversity. They actively recognised and respected the personal, cultural, social and religious needs of people. We reviewed staff training and found that all staff had completed their equality and diversity training. Leaders made reasonable adjustments to support staff to carry out their roles well.

The service had established clear governance processes and leadership structure that were appropriate for their service to deliver quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. The service acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes. Leaders and managers supported staff, staff feedback showed they were clear on their individual roles and responsibilities. There were systems in place that enabled leadership teams and staff to align goals, track performance, and improve accountability across the organisation. Managers met with staff every quarter; staff completed self-assessments as an opportunity to reflect on their work which was later discussed with their managers. Both team and multidisciplinary meetings were held on a regular basis. Managers clearly recorded any actions arising from these meetings and ensured they were shared with staff. Policies and procedures were accessible on the shared system, and a clear system was in place to ensure policies were reviewed in a timely manner. Staff took patient confidentiality and information security seriously.

The service clearly understood their duty to collaborate and had a strong partnership with the NHS teams to deliver the pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Communication between services supported care provision and enabled services to work seamlessly for patients. Spirit Health founded a global non-profit foundation that partnered with funders and governments to organise, sustain and scale highly effective, efficient and impactful initiatives. This foundation provided vital care in communities, currently active in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through their initiatives, community health workers used the proven, artificial intelligence (AI) offline platform to educate, screen and monitor people in health centres and in their homes. The system generated a risk score that identified ‘at-risk’ individuals that enabled timely follow-up care that led to improved outcomes and reduced preventable deaths. The platform not only identified symptoms but also detected underlying risk factors that enabled earlier interventions. The focus areas were ‘early screening and risk detection across priority diseases’ and ‘monitoring maternal, newborn and child health.’ Since June 2024 to February 2026, 151,217 lives had improved after the use of the platform, 25,923 at-risk individuals were detected and referred and over 80% of high-risk patients received follow up care.

The service had a strong focus on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation. They had a continuous improvement plan policy and developed a system to provide staff with opportunities to voice their ideas and collaborate with others to drive improvements. Leaders within the service actively promoted a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, ensuring that service development was responsive to patient need, evidence-based, and supported by effective use of digital technology. Leadership had driven several innovative initiatives to improve accessibility, patient experience, and outcomes. For example, there was strategic implementation of the educational app across both the pulmonary rehabilitation and weight management programme. Within the weight management programme, people were provided with access to the app to support engagement with educational resources, self monitoring, and ongoing behaviour change. This enabled more flexible, person centred care and improved engagement outside of traditional sessions. Within the pulmonary rehabilitation programme, the app was utilised to significantly increase service capacity and accessibility. For example, people who were unable to attend the face-to-face sessions were supported through the app. This offered more equitable access across the population. For example, patient feedback expressed they valued the ability to access resources repeatedly and review materials at their own pace. Leaders invested in new digital systems to improve operational efficiency and peoples experience. This included the introduction of software that automated key communications such as course invitations, booking reminders, and joining instructions. This streamlined administrative processes and ensured patients received timely and consistent information. Patient feedback was positive about their experience joining the programme as majority reported that the software was easy to use and the content was beneficial. Out of the 30 people surveyed, 93% reported that they would recommend the programme. Leaders maintained oversight of these innovations through regular review of engagement data, patient feedback, and outcomes, ensuring that improvements were sustained and embedded into practice. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. There was a culture of continuous improvement with staff given time and resources to try new ideas.