Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

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

This means we looked for evidence that the service 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.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness. They respected patients’ privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of patients and supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff involved patients in care planning and risk assessment and actively sought their feedback on the quality of care provided. Staff informed and involved families and carers appropriately.

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.

Staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with patients showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing patients with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. Staff took time to speak with and listen to patients.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Patients generally felt that staff supported them in understanding their care and treatment. Patients stated that staff informed them of their rights and took time to ensure that they understood them.

Staff directed patients to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. There was evidence within patient care records that staff referred patients to services as required.

Patients said staff treated them well and behaved appropriately towards them. Patients described most staff as being kind and respectful towards them.

Staff understood the individual needs of patients, including their personal, cultural, social and religious needs.

Staff said they could raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory or abusive behaviour or attitudes towards patients without fear of the consequences.

Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about patients.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

The service made adjustments for disabled patients. Managers and staff could give examples of how adjustments, adaptations and support had been provided to patients as required.

Staff ensured that patients could obtain information on treatments, local services, patients’ rights, how to complain and so on.

The information provided was in a form accessible to the particular patient group. Staff made information leaflets available in languages spoken by patients.

Managers ensured that staff and patients had access to interpreters and signers when they were required.

Patients had a choice of food to meet the dietary requirements of religious and ethnic groups and to account for allergies and intolerances.

Staff ensured that patients had access to appropriate spiritual support. Managers and staff gave examples of how they had supported patients with their spiritual needs, including by providing religious materials and items when requested. Managers noted that there could be challenges in getting local faith leaders to attend the site.

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

Patients generally felt listened to by staff about any concerns that they had and felt supported in being listened to about their care and decisions. Staff informed patients about their care and treatment including considerations and planning about potential discharge.

Patients were informed of their rights under the Mental Health Act. Patients confirmed that staff took the time to explain their rights to them.

Patients felt that staff supported them with their medicines and provided advice and information as requested.

Patients could participate in community meetings and a service user council. Patients said that the service would listen and make changes if they raised any concerns.

Patients raised concerns about leave being cancelled and felt that, when leave had been cancelled, it was not always re-booked. Patients felt that staffing levels and availability, along with limited resources in respect of unit vehicles, contributed to their leave being cancelled or delayed. Following the on-site assessment, the trust provided data on cancelled leave for the 12 months prior to the assessment. The trust had 22 incidents recorded of cancelled leave for this period across 4 of the 14 wards, meaning 10 wards had no recorded cancelled leave.

Whilst on the wards, we observed limited activities taking place for patients. We also reviewed community meeting minutes for some of the wards which recorded that patients had given feedback about limited activities taking place on the wards. Each ward had an individual ward-based activity plan. The trust provided a response following the on-site assessment noting that they would be increasing occupational therapy assistant provision to one full time equivalent per ward, which was hoped to strengthen activity opportunities and patient experience.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific risk issues. Staff monitored patient’s physical health regularly.

Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, patients.

Staff used de-escalation techniques to reduce the need for physical interventions when patients’ behaviours became heightened. The majority of the 14 wards generally had low usage of physical interventions for the 6 months prior to the assessment.

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

Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff gave positive feedback about working within their teams and being supported by local management. Staff felt positive and proud about working for the trust.

Staff had access to support for their own physical and emotional health needs through an occupational health service. Ward managers gave examples of how they provided support and monitored staff where necessary.

The average staff sickness levels for the 12 months prior to the assessment across the 14 wards was 10.2%. Sickness levels on Forest Beck ward were the highest at 21.8% with the lowest levels on Whinfell ward at 4.5%. The trust had developed a programme of work to address the challenges of sickness absence and to support staff to stay well in work and feel supported to return to work. The trust had an aim to deliver a 15% overall reduction in staff absence by March 2026.

Staff received appraisals. The trust provided opportunities for staff to develop their careers and access additional training and development in relation to this.