EACH The Nook

Updated 7 April 2020

EACH The Nook is operated by East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). It is one of three hospices operated by EACH, along with; The Treehouse hospice in Ipswich and the Milton hospice in Cambridgeshire. EACH provides support for children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, and their families and carers, across the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

The service moved from the Quidenham hospice to a purpose-built hospice building, The Nook, in August 2019. Families started accessing the new facilities from October 2019. It has seven bedrooms for children and young people, and accommodation for their families. In addition to the bedrooms, the location includes an outdoor play area, a music room, dedicated space for teenagers, a hydrotherapy pool, a sensory room, a faith and reflection room, a refreshment and kitchen area, dedicated indoor play areas, art and crafts room.

The service provides a range of physical, emotional, social and spiritual support services including end of life care, symptom management, short breaks, psychological and family therapy interventions. It also provides children, young people and their families with support for emotional, physical health and wellbeing through counselling, music therapy, art therapy, specialist play, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, practical help in the family home through the ‘Help at Home service’, spiritual care and family information.

The location has had a registered manager in post since October 2013.

Updated 7 April 2020

EACH The Nook is operated by East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). The service has seven inpatient beds.

The service provides a range of physical, emotional, social and spiritual support services including end of life care, symptom management, short breaks, psychological and family therapy interventions. It also provides children, young people and their families with support for emotional, physical health and wellbeing through counselling, music therapy, art therapy, specialist play, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, practical help in the family home through the ‘Help at Home service’, spiritual care and family information.

The Nook provides hospice care for children and young people. We inspected all services provided by the hospice.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short-notice announced inspection on 8 January 2020.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The main service provided by this hospital was hospice care for children and young people.

Services we rate

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as Outstanding overall.

We found outstanding practice in relation to hospice care for children and young people:

• Staff consistently treated patients and their families with compassion and kindness, respected their dignity and privacy, and went above and beyond expectations to meet their individual needs and wishes. Staff were devoted to doing all they could to support the emotional needs of patients, families and carers to minimise their distress. Staff helped patients live every day to the fullest.

• Services were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care and were tailored to meet patients’ individual needs and wishes. The service planned and provided care in a way that fully met the needs of local people and the communities served. It also worked proactively with others in the wider system and local organisations to plan care and improve services.

• It was easy for people to give feedback. Concerns and complaints were taken seriously and investigated, and improvements were made in response to feedback where possible. Patients could access services when they needed them.

• Leaders ran services well using best practice information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff were motivated to provide the best care they could for their patients. There was a common focus on improving the quality and sustainability of care and people’s experiences. Staff were proud to work at the service and felt respected, supported and valued.

• Leaders operated effective governance processes and staff at all levels were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients, staff and the local community.

We found areas of good practice in relation to hospice care for children and young people:

• The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Staff had access to a robust training and competency programme to ensure they had the skills required to provide good quality care.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence of its effectiveness. Managers checked to make sure staff followed guidance.

• Staff of different kinds worked together as a team to benefit patients. Nurses and other healthcare professionals supported each other to provide good care.

• The service planned and provided services in a way that met the needs of local people. The services provided reflected the needs of the population served and they ensured flexibility, choice and continuity of care. The facilities and premises were appropriate for the services that were delivered.

• Managers at all levels in the service had the right skills and abilities to run a service providing high-quality sustainable care

Heidi Smoult

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 7 April 2020

Hospice services for children was the main service

offered at The Nook.

We rated the service as outstanding overall, because

the service was outstanding in caring and

well-led, and good in safe, effective and responsive.