St Helens Urgent Treatment 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.

This is the first inspection for this service since its registration with CQC. This key question has been rated as Good.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

There was a clear vision and set of values. The service had a realistic strategy and supporting business plans to achieve priorities. The strategy was in line with meeting the health and social care priorities across the locality. The provider planned the service to meet the needs of the local population working in collaboration across the wider system of primary, secondary and urgent care.

Leaders were committed to evaluating and developing the quality of the service and they worked in partnership with relevant stakeholders to monitor and deliver its strategy.

A range of management and governance meetings were held regularly where performance against a range of indicators was reviewed, evaluated and action planned to make improvements as required.

Leaders demonstrated a positive, compassionate and listening culture and equality and diversity was actively promoted. The culture of the service was based on transparency, inclusion and engagement.

Staff spoke of a shared vision to provide a high quality, patient centred service that was responsive to people’s needs. Staff told us they felt positive about working at the UTC. They described good teamwork and a service that was clear on its function to work in the interests of patients and provide the best patient experience they could.

The service demonstrated openness, honesty and transparency in responding to incidents and complaints and lessons learned were shared across the team to prevent a recurrence.

Leaders were visible and inclusive, and they understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, and experience to lead effectively.

The leadership team worked in collaboration with other agencies, stakeholders and commissioners and were engaged in the development of services within the locality to support patient experience and improve outcomes for patients.

The provider monitored and acted upon data about outcomes for patients. They made improvements when required.

The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up without fear of detriment and that their voice would be heard and concerns acted upon.

Leaders encouraged staff to raise concerns and promoted the value of doing so. Staff told us they felt well supported and confident to raise concerns. They had confidence that these would be addressed.

The service had established freedom to speak up arrangements. There was a dedicated ‘freedom to speak up’ person that staff could approach. There was also a whistleblowing policy.

The provider was aware of and had systems to ensure compliance with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce and actively promoted equality and diversity. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by supporting equality and diversity for people who worked for them.

Reasonable adjustments were made to support staff to carry out their roles. Staff with caring responsibilities were actively supported with a flexible approach and changes to schedules to accommodate their needs.

Staff had completed training in equality, diversity, and inclusion and were aware of supporting people with protected characteristics such as age, gender, religion, or disability.

We saw and heard of no concerns with regards to workforce equality at any level including the recruitment of staff. The service had an equality, diversity, and inclusion policy.

The provider had clear and effective arrangements for managing and governing the service and ensuring accountability. The governance framework included a divisional ‘Clinical Quality and Safety Group’ (CQSG). The UTC was governed by the trust infrastructure for example for health and safety, training and development, infection control, patient experience, pharmacy and estates and facilities.  A regular programme of audit/checks was in place to ensure the safe and effective running of the service.

Quality and operational information was used to improve performance. The provider monitored the performance of the service across key indicators and improvements were made to the service as required.

All staff we spoke with were clear on their individual roles and responsibilities. Managers met with staff regularly to complete appraisals and performance reviews.

Staff could access all required policies and procedures. Daily ‘huddle’ meetings were held but the provider could consider the introduction of a wider staff meeting.

There were arrangements for identifying, managing, and mitigating risks. An overarching risk register was in place and more detailed sector specific risk assessments were carried out linked to this.

A major incident/ business continuity plan was in place.

There were processes for providing all staff with the development they need. This included appraisal and career development conversations. All staff received regular annual appraisals in the last year. Staff were supported to meet the requirements of professional revalidation where necessary. Staff were encouraged and supported to undertake mandatory training and development.

The provider worked collaboratively and in partnership with relevant stakeholders, commissioners and partner agencies to support joint working and provide and develop effective services.

Representatives from the service attended a UTC benchmarking group for Cheshire and Merseyside and the service worked alongside NHS 111, NWAS and local primary care networks (PCNs).

The senior management team met with commissioners from Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board and St Helens Place on a regular basis and also attend the Trust admission avoidance working group.

The service was working alongside other areas of the Trust to develop stronger links and pathways, for example for patients who are frail and for children and this was well supported by the clinical lead role.

The Trust led acute and community contract Quality Safety Group (CQSG) held regular meetings with all five of the local commissioners every 2 months to discuss contract and quality information.

There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement across the service.

The provider demonstrated a strong culture of learning from incidents and events and had taken action to improve the service in response.

There was recognition of the challenges the service faced and strategies to combat these challenges were being implemented or considered. For example, a particular challenge was the recruitment of appropriately skilled and experienced staff and meeting staffing requirements.

The provider worked collaboratively and in partnership with stakeholders to improve the experience of people who used the service and those within the locality. Leaders told us they maintained strong external relationships that supported improvement and innovation.