05 July 2022
During a routine inspection
Thornbury Nursing Services are a staffing agency who deliver specialist health care to people of all ages in the community, usually when their previous care package has failed or to avoid them being admitted to hospital. Some of their commissioned care packages require regulation by the Care Quality Commission.
We rated this service as outstanding because:
There was a comprehensive safety management system for ensuring staff were up to date with their mandatory training and were not subject to any safeguarding investigations. The system was innovative and significantly reduced the chance of incidents as a result of untrained staff. This meant the provider saw a continual improvement to their safety metrics and reductions in harm.
Service users and those close to them were actively involved in managing their own risks. They were able to input specific considerations about the management of their care onto the app. The provider’s app was available to service users and staff on their phones so they could access and add to their care information easily.
The provider’s incident dashboard allowed the managers to log any risk against the incidents in order to predict any future risk. Learning was based on a thorough analysis and investigation of things that went wrong. All staff were encouraged to participate in learning to improve safety as much as possible, through case studies and reflective practise sessions.
Staff provided good care and treatment, checked that service users ate and drank enough, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of service users, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
Staff treated service users with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to service users, families and carers.
Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual service users and were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care. Service users’ individual needs and preferences were central to the planning and delivery of tailored services. The services were flexible, provided choice and ensured continuity of care. There were innovative approaches to providing integrated person-centred pathways of care that involved other service providers, particularly for people with multiple and complex needs. There was a proactive approach to understanding the needs of different groups of people and to deliver care in a way that met these needs and promoted equality. This included people who are were in vulnerable circumstances or who had complex needs. Service users could access services in a way and at a time that suited them.
The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve the delivery of high quality person-centred care. Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose, strived to deliver and motivated staff to succeed. There were high levels of staff satisfaction across all equality groups. Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture. There were consistently high levels of constructive engagement with staff, including all equality groups. There was strong collaboration and support across all functions and a common focus on improving quality of care and service user experiences. The leadership drove continuous improvement and staff were accountable for delivering change.