• Community
  • Community healthcare service

Archived: Wren Healthcare Limited

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Office 3, 2nd Floor Innovation House, Innovation Way, Discovery Park, Sandwich, Kent, CT13 9FD (020) 3974 6950

Provided and run by:
Wren Healthcare Limited

All Inspections

15 February 2022

During a routine inspection

Wren Healthcare Limited is a provider of specialist nurse-led clinical homecare services across England and Wales.

We rated this service as good because:

  • The service had enough staff to care for patients. They accepted referrals based on whether they had staff to provide care in a timely manner and keep people safe.
  • Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect people using the service from abuse, and managed safety well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. Staff completed clinical competency assessments for phlebotomy and subcutaneous medicine administration. The service managed incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
  • The service used systems and processes to administer and record medicines safely. They did not store any medicines.
  • The service held monthly partner meetings with referring organisations, which detailed the service specific requirements. The referring teams were responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of treatment and patient outcomes and the service worked effectively with these external teams to provide good care and benefit people using the service.
  • The service provided good care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence-based practice. Staff protected the rights of patients in their care and supported them to make informed decisions about their care and treatment. The service made sure staff were competent for their roles.
  • Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their treatment. They provided emotional support to people using the service. The patients we spoke with were happy with their care and described the service as “brilliant” and “professional”.
  • The service provided care to meet the needs of the communities it served. It also worked with partner organisations to plan care. The service was inclusive and took account of patients’ individual needs. People could access the service when they needed it and received the right care in a timely way. It was easy for people to give feedback and patients we spoke to told us they felt confident to raise concerns about the care received.
  • Managers were approachable, supportive, and had the skills and knowledge to ensure patients received a quality service. Staff understood the services’ visions and values, and how to apply them to their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care and were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

  • The service did not have a formal supervision policy. Staff told us they received one-to-one meetings with their managers and clinical supervision was being carried out, although the frequency of structured managerial supervision was inconsistent. The service was in the process of developing an overarching supervision policy that would include both clinical and managerial supervision, however this was not yet embedded in practice.
  • Managers did not complete infection prevention and control (IPC) audits. However the service provided an audit schedule detailing IPC audits which were due to commence in March 2022. In the week following our inspection the service brought this forward and completed an IPC audit and shared outcomes with us. Field visits were also being completed which assured managers that staff were delivering safe care to patients.
  • The service was not undertaking annual appraisals with staff in line with their policy. However, the service had a clear strategy for how this would be embedded with objective setting meetings completed for all staff by the end of March 2022.