Chorlton Family Practice

On this page

• 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

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 had a Statement of Purpose, a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities. All staff had contributed to the development of the practice vision and strategy, which was kept under review. The practice worked well with partner agencies to address future challenges. We observed staff treating people from different backgrounds as individuals and with same level of care and respect.

The service had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. Staff told us leaders in the practice were approachable and responded to any concerns raised. Staff also told us leaders modelled the values of the practice on the statement of purpose. People told us that since the new Practice Manager had taken up the full time position the culture and support available to them had improved. The practice was looking for innovative ways in which they could improve services and looked at extending opening hours to include a Saturday morning.

The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. The practice had established Freedom to Speak up arrangements with other practices in the primary care network. Staff were aware of how to raise concerns internally and externally if they felt that this was needed. There was a no blame culture within the practice and speaking up was encouraged. The staff felt that by the leaders having an open door policy they could raise concerns at anytime. The leaders were approachable, and it was evident that no suggestion or discussion would be frowned upon.

The service valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. Policies and procedures to promote diversity and equality were in place. Adjustments had been made to ensure all staff were valued. Yearly events were celebrated at the practice. Evidence showed how the practice celebrated events like Pride, Chinese New Year and Eid. All staff embraced these events which helped with building rapport with the community and service users. All staff valued and treated each other with respect and dignity.

The service had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate. The practice continues to monitor peoples experience through the friends and family test and internal patient surveys. Leaders and managers supported staff, and all staff we spoke with were clear on their individual roles and responsibilities. Managers met with staff regularly to complete appraisals and performance reviews. The provider had established governance processes that were appropriate for their service. Staff could access all required policies and procedures via the intranet. Managers held regular monthly practice meetings with staff, during which they discussed significant events and clinical concerns and emerging risks. Managers ensured that where possible individual members of staff were not identifiable when discussing significant events that involved individual staff members. Learning from these events were shared with staff. All staff were invited to all meetings. For any staff that could attend managers ensured learning was shared with everyone. Managers clearly recorded any actions arising from these meetings and ensured they shared these with staff.

The service understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services work seamlessly for people. The benefit of these good working relationships helped to support patients when accessing care from other providers such as out of hours services. They shared information and learning with partners and collaborated for improvement. The provider worked with other practices within their primary care network to determine best care practices for all patients within the area. Staff had made adjustments to improve coordination of their service with community healthcare services. The practice worked with charities and local volunteer groups to help offer support to service users.

The service focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. The practice had a quality improvement plan in place to help drive improvements in services. The practice were planning to introduce a new online system to help ease the pressure on the admin team answering calls. There had been improvements made to the telephony system already and they used a cloud based system which allowed callers to receive a call back rather than waiting on the phone to get through. This worked well and there had been good satisfaction from patients using this option. All staff were encouraged to put forward new ideas that could be used to improve outcomes for patients and to make the service run more smoothly. No idea or suggestion was disregarded. Members of the Patient Participation Group were approached at regular intervals for their suggestions as well.