Medical Response Services

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• 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

We assessed two quality statements; capable, compassionate and inclusive leadership and freedom to speak up. The leadership team had the skills, experience and capability to manage services. The registered manager has been in post since 2011. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff were supported to speak up or raise concerns. All staff members we spoke to during the inspection were able to identify leaders and understood their individual roles. Staff told us that leaders were both visible and approachable.

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.

We did not look at Shared direction and culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

Staff told us leaders were visible and available. They could approach them with any issues, concerns or for advice. Staff shared their positive experiences of workplace adaptations put in place by managers to enable any caring responsibilities or any individual needs they may have. Staff told us the operations manager undertakes risk assessments at patients’ homes and communicates these with the team. Should a crew be short staffed, the operations manager would be able to support staff directly in ambulances where required. Staff told us they had team meetings and events to promote team building.

Recruitment records for both the director and operations manager were reviewed and maintained to fit and proper persons employed. All staff had computer-based employment records which were accessible however somewhat difficult to navigate.

All staff were aware of the whistleblowing policy, and all were confident in raising concerns to the management. All staff stated they would raise with the operations manager as a first action, and all would be happy to escalate to the managing director if needed. All staff told us they received feedback from any issues whenever they had raised these. They had no concerns regarding the service management. Leaders told us they had tried to identify an ambulance crew representative for any staff concerns to be raised to a peer, however they had not received any interest in the role. Following the inspection they had renewed efforts to establish a peer freedom to speak up guardian or equivalent, to support staff when raising any concerns to. At the time of inspection, the service did not have a freedom to speak up guardian or policy. The service followed the whistleblowing policy to manage and respond to any staff concerns were raised.

The whistleblowing policy provided guidance for staff around raising concerns. The service has an external HR partner that staff can utilise if required.

We did not look at Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Governance, management and sustainability during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Partnerships and communities during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Learning, improvement and innovation during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.