Updated 16 October 2024
The hospice is a local charity ‘committed to delivering compassionate holistic care for those with terminal illnesses and their families’. They cared for over 1,700 patients a year. Their services were available to anyone over the age of 18.
Rotherham were the only regional hospice to provide the full spectrum of palliative care services, at no cost to patients and families. The service’s staff and volunteer teams worked together to provide palliative care. This incorporated psychological, physical, social and spiritual support to help patients, and their families to achieve the very best quality of life.
Services included a 14-bed inpatient unit, Hospice at Home, which is the only 24-hour community hospice service in South Yorkshire, day services offering a broad range of therapeutic support, bereavement and counselling services for both adults and children, including dedicated teenage bereavement support, and chaplaincy services with extensive multifaith engagement.
We conducted this assessment due to the provider having an aged rating. We reviewed all case and notification activity from October 2023 up to our assessment date.
On this inspection CQC found the issues and recommendations from our last inspection in March 2019 had been addressed.
All staff and volunteers now had the appropriate level of safeguarding training for their role. Overall staff had achieved 97% safeguarding training compliance.
Hospice leads had clearly planned how to increase future provision to meet demand for their services. All staff were consulted on and understood strategic plans.
Hospice leadership had undergone a transformation since our last inspection in March 2019. Leads had implemented a clear strategic vision (‘Living Life’s Wishes’), modernised governance structures, and ensured robust engagement at all levels.
We also found the following outstanding practice.
Service leads accepted referrals from neurodiverse people. Leads recognised how people experienced bereavement could be different to others. Assistive technology was provided where needed.
The hospice had introduced a ‘Paws at Peace’ kennel service for cats and dogs. This supported the timely care of people’s pets. This reduced delays when admitting people into the service.
Leads and staff had developed and embedded a strong, positive, open, inclusive and forward-thinking culture. Managers proactively worked to challenge the hospice’s legacy culture. This enabled staff to speak out, raise concerns and report incidents more.
The hospice was pioneering community engagement through unique initiatives. Leads prioritised and invested in this area, recognising the needs of their diverse community. The outreach team raised awareness of services whilst developing new and existing relationships. Their vital and varied work tied in with the recently launched strategy’s objectives.
The hospice actively used local census data to analyse patient demographics. This helped staff proactively tailor services to better meet the needs of the diverse communities they served.