Hertfordshire Partnership University 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 Outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to Good.

Staff treated people who used services with compassion and kindness. They respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of people who used services and supported them to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Staff involved people 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 85 (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 attitudes and behaviours when interacting with people showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing people with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. We observed 8 staff interactions with people using the service, including a first assessment, review appointments and clinics and saw that staff were caring and supportive. Staff put people using the service at ease, gave them information about their care and answered any questions supportively.

We spoke with 25 people using the service and 16 family members of people using the service. People using the service all spoke very positively about staff and how safe they felt receiving care from them. People described staff as ‘amazing’, ‘excellent’ and ‘exceptional’, and felt that staff were genuinely interested in them and wanted to help.

Family members also spoke highly of the service saying ‘I don’t know what we would do without them’ and how much improvement they had seen in their family members wellbeing.

The trust provided feedback from the family and friends test that also highlighted compassionate staff and feeling listened to.

Staff supported patients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition and referred them on to other services when needed, including drug and alcohol services, physical health services and wellbeing services.

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

The service made adjustments for disabled patients and all locations were accessible to people with reduced mobility and wheelchair users. Staff could visit people in their homes or other suitable locations if they were unable to travel to the service location.

Staff ensured that patients could obtain information on treatments, local services, patients’ rights, how to complain and give feedback. Information was displayed on notice boards in waiting areas in all locations.

Staff supported people’s religious, cultural and spiritual needs which was evidenced in care plans and people’s feedback.

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

We reviewed 22 care records and saw that staff encouraged people who used the service to make their own choices and decisions about their care and treatment.

Staff supported people who used the service to build networks and support systems. Staff ran a number of groups where people using the service could socialise including a walking group, café social meetings and sports and leisure groups.

Employment specialists worked as part of the teams to support people who used the service to achieve their goals of gaining and maintaining paid employment.

Staff informed and involved families and carers appropriately. Carer support workers and social work staff ensured that family members and carers of people using the service could access a carers assessment, involved carers in care planning and risk management where appropriate. and could access support. They also ran a monthly carer support group.

The trust had introduced a joint service user and carer council and held an experts by experience forum quarterly. One expert by experience had won an award for their work on the fundaments of care and nursing led standards for Olanzapine clinics.

The trust had a carer practice policy in place which set out expectations for working in partnership with carers and was based on the nationally recognised Triangle of Care standards, ensuring carers areidentified,supportedand appropriately involved in assessment, careplanningand discharge. The Triangle of Care is an improvement tool based on 6 principles to ensure providers include and support unpaid carers.

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

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific risk issues and care planned for these accordingly. Staff held regular risk formulation meetings where multidisciplinary staff reviewed and discussed higher risk people and could respond in a timely way.

The service used a multi-agency approach for people at higher risk of mental health crisis. This helped staff to understand the interaction between mental ill health, substance misuse, homelessness, self-neglect, trauma and social exclusion, and to coordinate responses accordingly. Where the service could not safely manage risks alone, team around me (TAM) meetings were held to bring together the person using the service and relevant partners to agree shared risk management plans, clarify professional responsibilities and coordinate actions.

People using the service and their family members told us that they knew how to contact staff in the event of a crisis, including out of hours by calling the crisis team or 24 hour support line.

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

Staff felt respected, supported and valued. We spoke with 36 staff members on site and 26 as part of focus groups and they all felt positive and proud to work for the trust. Staff felt trusted to do their job and reported that they felt managers were genuinely interested in staff wellbeing.

The trust recognised staff success within the service through staff awards and teams had local recognition awards. Teams displayed compliments received from people who used services to share positive feedback and had team lunches and celebrations together as an opportunity for peer support and reflection.

Staff had access to regular reflective practice sessions as well as monthly supervision and told us they received good support following any incidents.

The trust had professional nurse advocates in place who offered drop-in sessions and group or individual sessions to staff to support them with wellbeing, personal and professional development.

The trust offered a wellbeing package for staff including an employee assistance programme, and belonging and inclusion networks.