Tameside General Hospital

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

Our rating of well-led improved. We rated well-led as good.

Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. There were clear and effective governance, management and accountability arrangements. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. Staff understood the service's vision and values, and how to apply them in their work.

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Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of children and young people receiving care. Leaders engaged well with partners and the community to plan and manage services. Leaders promoted a positive work culture based on equality, diversity and inclusion. Staff were supported to speak up or raise concerns.

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.

The trust vision was to become ‘an integrated health and care system, where teams work together to give the people of Tameside Glossop the best start in life, and support people to live well and age well’.

The trust vision were underpinned by a set of 5 values and behaviours relating to safety, respect, caring, communication and learning.

The trust’s ‘beyond patient care to population health' strategic plan 2023-26 outlined the overall strategy and objectives for the trust.

The ‘connecting care for children, young people and families 2024/25’ strategic objectives were based on the trust strategy and included specific objectives relating to integration, financial stability, developing workforce and compliance with quality and safety standards and key performance indicators.

The children and young people’s services had also developed strategic objectives for 2024-2027 in relation to acute paediatrics, paediatric diabetes and paediatric epilepsy.

Staff told us there was a friendly and open culture focussed on teamwork and providing quality care. They spoke positively about the support they received from managers.

Staff across the children and young people’s services told us the values and objectives had been shared with them and they had a good understanding of these.

Managers told us progress against the objectives was reviewed as part of routine divisional and directorate-level meetings and as part of away days planned during 2025.

The children and young people's service at the hospital formed part of the division of surgery, women and children, with the exception of the children and young people's emergency department, which formed part of the division of medicine and urgent care. There was a triumvirate leadership team consisting of medical, nursing and operational leads at departmental, directorate and divisional level.

The divisional and departmental leaders understood the risks to the services and had clear oversight on quality and safety, governance and performance issues through daily involvement and quality monitoring.

Staff told us they understood their departmental reporting structures clearly and spoke positively about the support they received from line managers. They told us leaders were visible, approachable and provided them with good support and guidance.

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The service had a freedom to speak up policy that provided guidance for staff around how to raise concerns internally and externally. A trust-wide freedom to speak up guardian was also in place.

Staff told us they felt confident they could raise any issues with their managers and that managers listened to them. Staff were aware of the freedom to speak up process and understood how to contact the freedom to speak up guardian if needed.

There had not been freedom to speak up or whistle blower concerns raised in the past 12 months relating to services for children and young people at this hospital.

Staff told us the service had an inclusive working culture and they were treated with respect and equity. Staff told us managers engaged with them regularly and they felt confident their concerns were listed to. The staff we spoke told us they had not experienced any instances of unfair treatment, discrimination or harassment.

Managers told us equality, diversity and inclusion was embedded in the culture of the service. They told us staff recruitment processes enabled equal opportunities and they engaged with staff routinely to maintain an inclusive work environment.

Staff recruitment processes by gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and disability were monitored at trust level. Processes were aligned with national standards such as the workforce race equality standard (WRES) and the workforce disability equality standard (WDES).

WRES and WDES data for the women and children’s division (2024) showed the service was comparable to trust standards for the likelihood of white staff being appointed from shortlisting compared to black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and for the relative likelihood of disabled staff being appointed from shortlisting across all posts.

Whilst there was no specific data for the children and young people’s services, trust-level NHS staff survey (2023) findings showed there had been improvements on the previous year around equal opportunities and staff from ethnic minorities or with a disability experiencing bullying, harassment and abuse.

Managers engaged with staff on a daily basis to monitor work culture and to identify and resolve any bias or discrimination. There were support mechanisms for staff with protected characteristics, including flexibility around working arrangements and shift patterns.

The 2023 NHS staff survey responses showed the women and children’s services were similar or better than trust averages for 6 of the 9 survey indicators, indicating most staff were positive about their experiences of working for the organisation. Staff feedback was lower than average for 3 indicators; ‘we are safe and healthy’, ‘engagement’ and ‘morale’. An action plan had been developed to improve staff morale and engagement. This included staff education sessions, away days, engagement and listening events and leadership walkarounds.

Managers told us the 2024 NHS staff survey results had recently been published they were in the process of reviewing the findings and developing improvement plans specifically for the children and young people’s services.

The children and young people's services had clear governance structures in place that provided assurance of oversight and performance against safety measures. There were monthly divisional management team, clinical governance and governance assurance group meetings to discuss governance and risk across the children's and neonatal services. Staff also took part in routine departmental and specialised staff group meetings.

Recent meeting minutes showed key discussions took place around performance, risk, governance, audit findings and incidents. Action logs were in place for key performance indicators and these were followed up at subsequent meetings.

Staff told us information on performance, risks and governance was discussed during daily handovers, safety huddles and during team meetings.

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Managers understood the key risks to the services and maintained departmental and divisional-level risk registers. The departmental and divisional risk registers showed that key risks were identified and control measures were put in place to mitigate risks. Risks had a review date and an accountable staff member (such as matrons or clinical leads) responsible for managing that risk. Staff were aware of how to record and escalate key risks on the risk registers.

Routine audit and monitoring of key processes took place to monitor performance against safety standards and organisational objectives. Information relating to performance against key quality, safety and performance objectives was monitored and cascaded to staff through team meetings, huddles, performance dashboards and newsletters. Staff told us their performance was routinely monitored and they received feedback following audits to aid learning and improvement.

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Managers were aware of their responsibility to report notifiable incidents. There was a system in place to ensure safety alerts relating to safety, medicines and medical devices were cascaded to staff and responded to in a timely manner.

Parents and young people told us care and treatment was well co-ordinated and staff engaged and kept them informed about their care and treatment.

The children's services worked with community services, local and regional children's and neonatal care networks and followed the Greater Manchester paediatric general and acute mutual aid pathway to coordinate care and treatment with service partners and other healthcare providers.

Service partners told us service managers worked collaboratively to deliver effective services. They gave examples of partnership working in initiatives relating to children's asthma and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They told us the services contributed as an active partner in the Tameside Children's Improvement Board and the Local Area Partnership delivery plans.

Service commissioners told us they held regular relationship meetings with the trust to discuss quality and safety activities, including for services for children and young people.

Staff told us they routinely engaged with local communities and parents and young people who used the service to gain feedback and improve people's experiences of using the service. Examples included feedback surveys, focus groups, routine engagement events (such as for asthma and epilepsy services) and involving people in service improvements (such as sensory rooms and parents room upgrades in the children's unit).

Staff told us there was a culture of learning and improvement across the service. They told us routine audits took place to monitor compliance and learning was shared through daily huddles and routine meetings.

We saw evidence of learning and improvement resulting from findings from audit results, incidents and complaints and shared learning was cascaded to staff to improve services.

The services were participating in the NHS England ‘perinatal culture and leadership programme'

The neonatal service was involved in an innovative gene therapy screening programme for newborns that checked for a predisposition for hearing loss with gentamicin use. Any baby testing positive for the gene would have an alternative antibiotic prescribed.

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A business case was in development with a proposal to increase bed capacity in the children's unit and create a dedicated area for children and young people admitted for surgery.

The neonatal unit achieved the family integrated care (FICare) accreditation in February 2024. FICare is a model that integrates families as partners in the neonatal unit care team, and provides a structure that supports the implementation of family-centred care.

The children and young people's service was in the process of implementing an electronic audit management and tracking system to facilitate the recording and monitoring of NICE guidance compliance.