Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment the rating has remained Good.

This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

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 service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

We spoke with 10 patients who told us that staff treated them with kindness and respect and that staff listened to them. Staff respected patients' privacy and dignity and recorded patients' preferences for having their bedroom door observation panels open or closed and how they would like their observations to take place.

We observed interactions between staff and patients that were supportive, caring and showed that staff had a good understanding of patients and their individual interests.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition and patient views were clearly recorded in care plans.

Staff received comprehensive training in equality, diversity and human rights, with 99% of staff having completed up-to-date training. This ensures that staff understand and apply principles of fairness and inclusion in their daily practice. In addition, 98% of staff had completed the Oliver McGowan Learning Disability and Autism Awareness training, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to support patients with neurodivergence effectively.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff supported patients to have choice and control over their care as much as possible and were involved in day-to-day decision making. Patients could suggest activities and trips out during ward community meetings and ward based activities were set dependent on patients interests.

Patients had access to an independent advocate and patients we spoke with knew how and when to speak to them.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff told us they felt valued and safe at work, and they had strong team morale. They reported that monthly wellbeing support sessions were in place, which contributed to a positive and supportive working environment.

The trust had appropriate policies and processes in place to support staff wellbeing. The trust had an action plan in place to address issues raised in the most recent staff survey. These included increased leadership visibility and away days for team learning and cohesiveness.

The trust had a Race Equality Strategic Plan for improving race equity across recruitment and progression. The plan also focussed on improving culture and increasing leadership accountability. The trust had a ‘Race past racism’ project in place to improve staff support when dealing with racism, however some staff we spoke with felt there was still improvement required when staff experienced racism and how these incidents were managed.