CQC upgrades Teesside Hospice to outstanding

Teesside Hospice in Middlesbrough has been rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), improving from its previous overall rating of good.

The hospice provides specialist palliative and end-of-life care to adults over the age of 18, alongside support for loved ones and people who have been bereaved. Its bereavement support is also available to children from the age of seven.

CQC inspected the service in June as part of its ongoing monitoring of the safety and quality of adult social care services.

Following the inspection, the hospice’s safe rating improved from requires improvement to good. Effective, caring and responsive were upgraded from good to outstanding. The service was also rated outstanding for well-led.

Inspectors found staff provided highly personalised care and had a strong understanding of people’s individual needs. People receiving support and their families spoke positively about their experiences, with some describing the service as superb and saying they could not fault the care they received.

The inspection highlighted the support available to families both during and after a person’s end-of-life care. Some relatives continued to return to the hospice after losing a loved one because they found comfort and a sense of peace there.

CQC also found that staff considered carefully how sensitive information was communicated, including the language used within care documents. People and their families received information appropriate to their individual needs and were regularly kept informed about their care and treatment.

Where people experienced communication difficulties, staff adapted their approach to help them understand their care, including the use of picture cards.

Inspectors highlighted work to make hospice services more accessible to communities who might otherwise experience barriers to receiving care.

After hearing from people using local homelessness services who felt they would not fit into a hospice environment, staff sought learning from other hospices to help develop a service that was more accessible to this group.

CQC also reviewed feedback from a same-sex couple who had previously experienced difficulties feeling included in other services. Their experience at Teesside Hospice was positive, with the couple reporting that they had been able to connect with other people at the service.

Staff were also found to have developed ways of supporting people experiencing complex social circumstances while maintaining the safety of others at the hospice. This included situations involving people who used substances or whose loved ones did so.

The hospice’s connection with the wider community was another area recognised by inspectors. It maintained a local presence through charity shops and participation in community events, supported by volunteers who were often able to draw on their own experiences of the hospice.

CQC found leaders had a detailed understanding of the service and remained accessible to staff, including outside normal working hours. Inspectors also saw leaders engaging directly with people using the hospice during their visit.

Complaints were thoroughly reviewed, with learning identified and changes to practice introduced where necessary.

Gill Hodgson-Reilly, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-east, said inspectors had found an exceptional service where staff and leaders worked to provide people with the best possible care at the end of their lives.

She said the hospice demonstrated a commitment to treating people as individuals and ensuring their wellbeing and needs were fully considered, adding that other services could potentially learn from the findings of the inspection.

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