Leylands Medical Centre

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.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating has changed and the practice is now rated outstanding.

This service scored 93 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The practice had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities.

All of the staff we spoke with showed a clear desire to provide the best care and treatment to their practice population. Leaders at the practice had implemented new systems and processes to ensure all members of the practice team had input into this and spoke highly of staff motivation. All staff we spoke with and received feedback from demonstrated a genuine commitment to providing the best care and treatment to patients.

The provider had a good understanding of the challenges faced around health inequalities and ensuring clinical capacity continued to meet patient demand. They shared evidence of numerous quality improvement projects with us which aimed to reduce health inequalities. Leaders told us how they fully utilised additional support to best meet patient need, including the pharmacy first scheme, physiotherapists and social prescribers.

The practice 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 always did so with integrity, openness and honesty.

All staff told us leaders in the practice were approachable and responded to any concerns raised.

We saw the leadership team worked with other practices in the primary care network and were engaged in the development of primary care services within the local area.

During our site visit, we met with the leadership team who demonstrated a genuine commitment to improving health outcomes for the practice population.

We saw evidence of how transformation of systems and process had focused on a whole practice approach which empowered all staff teams to support health improvements for the practice population.

We reviewed data to support how non-clinical staff had actively participated in quality improvement projects such as opportunistic vaccination and screening invitations.

There was evidence of quality improvement activity which clearly considered the needs of all staff. For example, improvements to the internal clinical communication system, implementation of RAPP button (report a positive or a problem) to enable real time feedback from the non-clinical team and participation in the Healthy Practice Programme.

Leaders had introduced an Associate Partner Scheme to support salaried GPs working at the practice to develop into leadership roles. This included attendance at board meetings, involvement in discussions about practice strategy, operational pressures and organisational decision-making. This was aimed to support salaried GPs with transition into a partnership role.

The practice fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.

Staff could raise concerns internally and there were arrangements in place with a local practice to ensure concerns could also be raised externally.

All of the staff we spoke with were aware of how to raise a concern and felt confident that this would be managed appropriately.

The practice valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them. Policies and procedures to promote diversity and equality were in place.

Adjustments had been made to ensure all staff were valued. For example, in response to staff feedback via the Healthy Practice Programme, the practice had introduced a wellbeing champion, training around team wellbeing and a sports day.

The practice had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and share this securely with others when appropriate.

Leaders and managers supported staff, and all staff we spoke with were clear on their individual roles and responsibilities.

Managers met with staff regularly to complete appraisals and performance reviews. The provider had established governance processes that were appropriate for their service. Staff could access all required policies and procedures. Managers held regular practice meetings with staff, during which they discussed clinical concerns and emerging risks. Managers clearly recorded any actions arising from these meetings and ensured they shared these with staff. Staff took patient confidentiality and information security seriously.

There were effective systems to manage current and future performance and risks to the quality of service. We saw evidence of how the provider had taken a proportionate approach to managing risks that allowed new and innovative ideas to be tested within the service. For example, the practice had utilised clinical systems to aid proactive identification of long term conditions such as high blood pressure. In addition, the practice had undertaken a total transformation of the appointment system in response to patient feedback. This utilised the clinical system to ensure relevant health information was accessible to clinicians to support the assessment process.

The practice had developed the Leylands Monthly Roundup, a system to ensure all staff were informed of new primary care guidance, safety alerts and operational changes. This was circulated electronically to staff and also included a commentary from the practice leadership team explaining how the practice was responding to any new guidance.

The practice understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services work seamlessly for people. They shared information and learning with partners and collaborate for improvement. For example, clinicians at the practice created a structured GP placement for paramedics using existing training capacity to develop them safely into more effective primary care clinicians. This model combined a 6-week GP placement with close supervision, gradual case-mix expansion, fortnightly teaching, a standardised workbook and a safe prescribing formulary developed in-house with Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

In addition, the practice had good relationships with research partners including Bradford Institute for Health Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Agile Research Delivery Team and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and had supported patients to take part in studies. Between April and September 2025, the practice was commended as one of the highest recruiting practices in West Yorkshire for NIHR portfolio research.

The practice worked with other organisations to offer a variety of services including mental health services and grief and loss counselling.

The provider worked with other practices within their primary care network (PCN) to offer services tailored to the local population. We reviewed positive feedback from the PCN as part of this assessment process.

The practice had a strong focus on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They always encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. They actively contribute to safe, effective practice and research. For example, the practice worked with the Primary Care Network to create a PCN-wide training model so that education could be shared across practices. This aimed to reduce pressure on capacity, particularly for smaller practices and practices with only 1 designated trainer. As part of the training model, the provider hosted around 6 training sessions a year, with the remaining 6 sessions being hosted across the rest of the PCN.

During our assessment we reviewed numerous quality improvement activities undertaken by the practice. This included work to address health inequalities, improve access and patient experience and improve communication within teams.

At the time of our inspection the practice had been shortlisted as 1 of 3 national finalists for the 2026 SystmOne National GP Excellence Awards – Operational Efficiency Award and was confirmed as the winner following our site visit.

Leaders at the practice were aware of the threats caused by climate change and acknowledged the practice’s responsibility to take steps to reduce environmental impact. Feedback obtained from staff via the ‘Healthy Practice’ programme had also confirmed staff were eager to work towards becoming a greener practice if given the opportunity. Therefore, the practice took a whole-organisation approach to environmental sustainability across both clinical and non-clinical workstreams. Focusing on greener inhaler prescribing, more energy-efficient lighting, lower-energy heating controls, and reducing single-use plastic waste from soaps and cleaning consumables.

Greener prescribing was embedded into routine clinical workflow to support prescribing, clinical education and opportunistic shared decision-making at reviews. The practice monitored this via audit activity.

All staff within the practice were encouraged to make suggestions to improve ways of working and we saw examples of how staff feedback had influenced service improvement.