St Andrews Healthcare Northampton

The provider had developed a robust strategy which included 7 strategic ambitions; however, these had not filtered down to or been understood by ward staff. The provider has a ward manager development programme in place which supports leaders to embody the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had taken action to review and improve the culture of the organisation in the context of equality, diversity and inclusion. The provider has in place a diversity and inclusion manager, inclusion strategy and steering committee. However, during our assessment we were advised that staff had been racially abused, however no action had been taken. In addition 2 staff members spoke to us about feeling marginalised on the wards. There were regular ward and divisional governance meetings for safety, audit, quality and governance. These discussed and addressed key areas of performance, risk, audit, culture and workforce. Minutes showed areas of concern were identified and actions were taken to learn and improve. However, changes had not always been made when needed to improve the service. For example, not all staff working on the ward had attended dysphagia training. There were processes to ensure that learning happens when things go wrong, and from examples of good practice. Whilst some staff felt supported and guided by their leadership team, some staff members felt that leaders above matron level were not visible. The provider had a good range of accurate and timely data and information available to understand performance and quality and improvements were made as needed. This included access to staffing in real time. However, staff felt that leaders did not understand the impact of current staffing on their role.