HealthHero - Fox Talbot House

On this page

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

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

At our last inspection, we rated this key question Outstanding. At this assessment, this key question remains rated Outstanding.

This service scored 90 (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 was exceptional at treating people with kindness, empathy and compassion and in how they respected people’s privacy and dignity. Staff always treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Arrangements were in place to promote people’s privacy. People were valued as individuals and were empowered to have a voice in their own care and treatment. Staff understood people’s personal, cultural, social and religious needs. They displayed an understanding and non-judgmental attitude to all people.

Staff we spoke with understood guidelines on how to ensure young adults had control over their own privacy and the amount of parental involvement in managing their care and support. For example, the service demonstrated a case study of call handlers who contacted people’s GP practices and safeguarding teams as part of an additional implemented safety netting mechanism to escalate their concerns of symptoms out of empathy and concern. By going beyond operational processes and prioritising people’s safety and dignity, this showed commitment to protecting vulnerable people which led to further clinical intervention to improve their care and treatment.

Staff were trained in equality, diversity and inclusion, which included learning disability and autism training. This training equipped staff with the knowledge and skills to understand and respect individual needs, reduce health inequalities, and support people to ensure they understood their care and treatment options.

At this inspection, we found consistently outstanding feedback from people who used the service and those who are close to them, including stakeholders, who were continually positive about the way staff treat people. During a review of feedback surveys from 2024-2025, 95% of respondents said they were treated with dignity, respect and would recommend the service to their family and friends. Feedback gathered during the inspection through the service’s internal staff survey results also showed staff were highly motivated and committed to offer care that was kind and promoted people’s dignity.

The provider also sub-contracted NHS 111 services locally to another healthcare provider. The service demonstrated oversight of the quality of care provided and we noted, as of March 2025, the service reported approximately 95% of respondents recommended the service. This compared positively against the national average of 80.9%. Feedback themes highlighted praise for the service being caring and responsive, with many reporting they were seen by a clinician within an hour of contacting NHS 111 and felt involved with decisions about their care.

In response to a national enquiry into NHS complaints management systems, the service developed a number of processes to collate, measure and act on the results of people’s feedback. The service recognised children and young people are high users of urgent care services and therefore continued to develop specific comment cards in order to obtain more ‘user friendly’ feedback about their experiences. Clinical responders gave comment cards to people during home visits to encourage the uptake of feedback as well as providing urgent escalation contact details, should their symptoms deteriorate. The service also implemented touch screen tablets at treatment centre bases as an additional method for obtaining feedback. Social media platforms were available as a source of information about the service and gave opportunities for people to give their feedback. Technology and equipment were used to improve treatment and to support people. For example, as a result of frequent feedback trends identified by home visiting drivers, the service implemented the ‘MiDos’ application on staff laptops and mobiles which gave up to date information about pharmacy opening times, locations as well as needle exchange centres. This meant people had more up to date information to access urgent prescriptions whilst promoting continued improvement to delivering compassionate care.

The service treated people as individuals in how they made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. The service took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff recognised people’s needs to have access to, and links with, their advocacy and support networks in the community and they supported people to do this. People’s communication needs were met to enable them to be fully involved in their care, records documented reasonable adjustments that were accessible to clinicians. This included preferences on communications, where the service was able to provide alternative options such as remote video consultations.

The service demonstrated a commitment to treating people as individuals, respecting their aspirations, and making reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. People were comprehensively risk assessed to potential hazards and mitigation strategies with the workplace and prior to care and treatment planning.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Staff helped people and their carers to access advocacy and community-based services.

Staff were trained to complete the role of chaperone and information was available to make people aware they could request a chaperone for any care contact when needed. Posters and leaflets are available at all service site locations we visited.

The service recognised people’s needs. People with learning disabilities or complex social needs, family, carers or social workers were appropriately involved. The service had worked collaboratively with third sector groups to improve patient experience for those in minority groups or with a disability and to ensure their input when developing their model of care. For example, following feedback, the service had ensured information was available in braille so those who are visual impaired could access it in a way that suited their preferences.

The service was exceptional in how they listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. There was a system to escalate concerns and ensure people with immediate needs had access to urgent care services. Staff we spoke with knew the process for emergency support, including mental health crisis teams and onward referral to emergency departments.

The service has developed enhanced, proactive and multi‑layered escalation systems that exceed the expectations of routine urgent care pathways, which was co-ordinated across the clinical assessment service; out of hours treatment bases and clinical responder home visiting functions. This ensured people received safe, timely and compassionate responses even during periods of pressure. Evidence provided by the service showed senior clinicians including clinical navigators maintained live oversight of all case queues, including home visiting and treatment centre bases. Staff demonstrated how this included the ability to intervene quickly when staff raised concerns. For example, we observed how the service connected paramedics or responders on scene directly to a senior clinician to aid complex treatment decisions. This process ensured that escalations were supported by immediate expert review, surpassing standard urgent care procedures.

The service demonstrated how people were able to access care for their immediate needs, including reasonable adjustments to assist them in this process. Information on people’s immediate needs was recorded on the person’s clinical records, so they do not need to be asked or requested on each occasion.

Observational audits demonstrated staff consistently engaged with people in conversations about their immediate needs and adapt their responses to align with each person’s wishes. Incident logs and competency assessments confirmed staff identified urgent situations promptly and used the appropriate tools, equipment and technology to provide safe and effective support,

Staff demonstrated exceptional responsiveness to people’s immediate needs, often going beyond contractual requirements to minimise discomfort or distress. Staff anticipated people’s needs and acted promptly, using tools such as remote video consultations for urgent assessments and escalation. We noted the service used this remote video consultation tool as an assessment which may eliminate the need for in-person visits, if not clinically necessary. This helped to increase the potential of clinical capacity to meet people’s needs in a timelier manner because clinicians were able to assess and manage people more effectively with leaders’ oversight of clinical care, decision making and task-sharing. This process was implemented as an additional layer to prioritising people’s care helping to determine early triage. Staff provided a case study which involved the use of the remote video consultation system to assess a person’s condition without delay, supporting independence and reducing unnecessary travel. The assessment prompted referral to the emergency department for urgent intervention. Feedback from the referred healthcare service and the person confirmed that the approach improved outcomes by reducing the time taken to assess whilst upholding the person’s wellbeing, by avoiding an additional in-person assessment.

People with poor mental health had access to a crisis line support pathway from the service’s Clinical Assessment Service and NHS 111, linked with a local mental health partnership which supported clinicians with specialist advice. This meant the caller was not required to rejoin the NHS 111 telephone queue, undergo another pathway assessment, or wait for a callback. This process was developed by the service to allow direct connection, shortening the time for specialist input and reduce the risk associated with repeated triage steps which cause delay. As a result, clinicians were able to escalate concerns immediately and obtain real‑time advice from mental‑health specialists. This rapid clinical escalation enabled a timelier response for care than standard NHS 111 clinical callback processes.

The service promoted the wellbeing of their staff and we saw evidence they supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff told us they were valued by leaders. Leaders had taken steps to recognise and meet the wellbeing needs of staff, which included the necessary resources and facilities for safe working, such as regular breaks and rest areas. Staff reported being supported if they were struggling at work.

The service demonstrated a strong commitment to staff wellbeing, recognising its importance in building a supportive culture. Initiatives included flexible working arrangements, phased returns after long-term absence, and access to occupational health and an Employee Assistance Programme. For example, health assessments were offered to new starters in home-visiting driver roles, for staff aged 60 and above and following a change to health. Staff were supported through wellbeing webinars on topics such as menopause, neurodiversity, and mental health, alongside awareness campaigns and charity events created a strong team working environment. Staff had access to groupwide services such as wellbeing applications and social events throughout the year. Staff were supported with working arrangements in their roles, such as return to work assessments, to ensure they were safe within the workplace. As a response to staff feedback, the service implemented hot desking within the call centre environment to improve satisfaction and where appropriate, quieter spaces to communicate on phone calls.

Staff had regular opportunities to provide feedback, raise concerns and suggest ways to improve the service or staff experiences. The service carried out regular staff feedback surveys. Leaders provided a timely and considered response by detailing actions taken from feedback surveys via email bulletins. Staff survey results showed 82% of staff agreed with the statement “We care about each other here,” and the service achieved ‘Great Place to Work’ accreditation in 2025. This accreditation is a globally recognised award which validates an organisation's workplace culture based on direct employee feedback, with ongoing human resource insights and support. These measures contributed to a positive culture where staff felt valued and empowered to provide compassionate care. The service identified themes of high level of satisfaction with improved results from previous surveys which included ‘general attitude to work’, ‘involvement in decision making’, ‘culture and workload, ‘patient care’ and ‘staff health and wellbeing’. This demonstrated a focus toward staff wellbeing when compared with previous survey results and feedback which highlighted a priority in operational performance. We received staff feedback as part of the assessment process which also highlighted positive themes, such as staffing teams who had a focus on providing positive outcomes for people who used the service and leaders who welcomed feedback for service improvements.

Staff received training and followed service policy and procedures for lone working arrangements or for raising and escalating concerns on home visits. Staff had access to mobile applications and sessions were monitored by the 24/7 Urgent Care Coordinator Team to ensure staff remained safe when travelling. The Urgent Care Coordinator Team had full visibility of clinicians’ caseloads, ensuring oversight of all planned treatment centre and home visit contacts, proving regular touchpoint calls to manage demand.