Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice

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

We rated Caring as good. We did not assess enough quality statements to re-rate caring. This meant the key question of caring is still rated as outstanding. We only assessed one quality statement relating to workforce wellbeing and enablement; The hospice offered all staff extensive support along with wellbeing initiatives, activities and resources from their wellbeing champions.

This service scored 95 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Kindness, compassion and dignity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

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.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

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.

Staff and volunteers could access wellbeing champions who led initiatives to support staff teams. A recent example in August 2024 was an invite for staff and volunteers to take part in a relaxation session as part of national relaxation day. Staff had good awareness and understanding of these champions. CQC heard care team staff felt underappreciated and rarely heard positive feedback from colleagues. As a result, care leads were looking to resume a positive feedback form box staff had in the past to highlight their gratitude and celebrate achievements and success. Leads were considering other positive feedback mechanisms, but wanted to ensure they were equitable. Other progress was fed back through care team meetings. The head of care sent care staff a fortnightly informal email summary of any service changes and learning. The hospice had a staff away day in October 2023 where all staff were invited to a hotel to discuss various topics, all with the aiming of improving the service’s future vision and culture. They held another on 9 September 2024. The agenda included a set of exercises encouraging people in teams to creatively reflect and review how they wanted working at the hospice in three years’ time to feel compared to now looking at core values, with a focus on solutions. Other exercises focused on improving communication channels and joined up teams working where all staff agreed change was needed to address historic divisions. Staff and new leads we asked felt very positive, motivated and engaged from away day exercises, discussions and other sessions. However, poor staff retention was an issue raised quite often by staff in their responses to CQC’s cultural survey. Some attributed this to a lack of investment in staff and their skills, a lack of shared direction, or pay and reward not matching the NHS. Several staff mentioned hospice posts did not match their expectations, the job advert description was different or misleading from the role in practice.

The hospice had five qualified mental health first aiders (MHFAs) in different departments and team available weekdays. They could provide psychological and emotional support to other staff, children, families and carers who needed it. CQC saw a poster displayed in the upstairs kitchen with headshot photos for easy staff recognition. The service had a new wellbeing initiative and structure in place comprising a committee who took ideas from team members across the hospice to shape wellbeing activities. There had been a few good activities run since this group began which reflected different staff groups. Staff also had a forum in which they could post questions to senior leadership team or make suggestions. The hospice placed a strong emphasis on the safety and wellbeing of staff. Their health and safety (H&S) policy statement and management plan emphasised their commitment to ensure policies, procedures, reporting processes, audits, risk assessments, standard operation procedures and guidance documentation were in place across the business. The hospice’s H&S group was led by the H&S lead, with representation from across the business. The group held quarterly fixed agenda led meetings to implement, audit, monitor, review, update and manage all aspects of their H&S procedures. Copies of minutes were distributed to attendees and the senior leadership team. All new employees were briefed on the health, safety and welfare policy and current risk assessments. Briefings were given in staff’s first week of employment (or as soon as possible thereafter). Line managers were responsible for identifying further H&S training needs for staff within their service as they arose. Managers consulted with human resources and facilities to ensure any H&S needs staff had were met. Compulsory training was arranged for the H&S of all employees, as new needs were identified and to emphasise existing procedures.