Helen and Douglas House

Updated 24 November 2023

Helen and Douglas House is a hospice based in central Oxford. The service provides supportive stays, symptom management, end-of-life and counselling and bereavement services to children, young people and their families.

The service opened as Helen House in the 1980s and at the time was the world’s first children’s hospice. The service merged with Douglas House in 2004 to provide care for young people and bridge the gap between children’s and adults end-of-life care services. Douglas House closed in 2018, however Helen and Douglas House continue to provide services for up to 8 children and young adults up until their 19th birthday inhouse, and also provides community support for children and young people in their own homes.

The service is registered to carry out the following regulation:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

This was the first inspection of this service using the acute framework. When this service was previously inspected in 2017, hospices were inspected using the adult social care inspection framework.

Updated 24 November 2023

Our rating of this location improved. We rated it as outstanding because:

• We found a service that was leading the way nationally in educating third parties on the complex needs of paediatric palliative care. Leaders encouraged innovation and participation in research. Staff working for the service produced numerous pieces of legislation and were members of national committees related to paediatric palliative care.
• There was an exceptionally strong focus on multidisciplinary working, with the service developing multidisciplinary teams whenever there was an opportunity for shared learning. Staff were committed to working collaboratively and took a clear, coordinated and holistic approach to ensure seamless care.
• Staff repeatedly went above and beyond to find ways to make a difference to children and their families. Staff went above expectations to establish and meet children’s individual needs and were passionate about the care they delivered. We found an exceptionally caring culture with whole staff buy in to promote dignity, respect and understanding. Staff developed positive, trusting relationships with children and their families and did everything possible to ensure that last requests could be achieved.
• The service provided safe care, environments were safe and clean with enough staff to provide safe and effective care. Staff developed holistic care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of children and young people and in line with national guidance and best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The service met the needs of all children and young people who used the service – including those with protected characteristics. Staff helped children with communication, advocacy and cultural and spiritual support. The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results, and shared these with the whole team and the wider service.
• The service was well led and governance processes ensured the hospice ran smoothly. Leaders had the skills, knowledge and experience to perform their roles, had a good understanding of the services they managed, and were visible in the service. Staff felt respected, supported and valued and knew and understood the provider’s vision and values and how they were applied in the work of their team.
• However:
• Managers acknowledged that due to an influx of new staff, not all staff had completed all mandatory training. This was mitigated in an action plan that ensured the completion of training was prioritised by all staff, and safeguarded children and young people by ensuring there were always staff on shift that had completed the mandatory training.
• Staff were very knowledgeable about the children they looked after and how to support children, young people and their families in an individual, personalised way. This was reflected in the level of detail in patient care plans. However, this information had not been transferred onto risk assessments.

Updated 24 November 2023