Cranford Medical Centre

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

We assessed all the quality statement from this key question. Our rating for this key question remains good. We found the provider had clear and effective governance processes, which supported the safe delivery of care. Staff were clear on their individual responsibilities and knew who was accountable for each aspect of the service.

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.

Staff we spoke to understood the vision and strategy of the practice and their role in achieving them. Leaders demonstrated that they listened to staff and people using the service and that there was a learning culture.

There was a practice mission statement which was readily available to staff. The learning culture was demonstrated through meeting minutes which showed that performance, incidents, patient feedback and complaints were routinely discussed.

Staff told us they were well supported by leaders who were visible and approachable. Leaders were knowledgeable and explained the challenges of delivering good quality care and were working towards improvements. Leaders had identified dementia care as a growing challenge within the patient population.

Leaders were visible through attendance at team meetings, multi-disciplinary team meetings, PCN meetings and PPG meetings. There were ideas for succession planning which were yet to be formalised.

Staff told us they were supported and encouraged to raise concerns, and they were confident that they would be taken seriously by leaders.

The practice had a whistleblowing policy and a freedom to speak up guardian. Policies for these were available to all staff on the computer shared drive.

Staff we spoke to told us they had not experienced discrimination or discriminatory behaviour whilst working at the practice. They told us that leaders treated them as equals.

There was evidence from policies that leaders took action to continually review and improve the culture of the organisation in the context of equality, diversity and inclusion. There was no evidence of discrimination built into any of the policies we reviewed. Staff had undertaken training modules in equality, diversity and human rights. A staff survey had been conducted which demonstrated the practice had collected, analysed and responded to staff feedback.

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, and the policies we reviewed were accurate and current. Managers held regular practice meetings with staff, during which they discussed clinical concerns and emerging risks. Managers clearly recorded any actions arising from these meetings and ensured they shared these with staff. Staff took patient confidentiality and information security seriously. There was a business continuity plan which was accessible to staff.

People we spoke to told us their care and treatment was managed well within the community. For example, when they needed an evening or weekend appointment, this was available through another local practice within the primary care network.

Staff and leaders told us they had strong relationships with healthcare professionals within the local community to support care provision and joined-up care.

We did not receive any specific feedback from partners.

The practice had an active patient participation group with representatives from different patient groups. They told us that the practice listened to people and made improvements to the service based on their feedback. They had high praise for leaders.

Staff told us they really enjoyed working at the service and several staff had worked there for a number of years. They had been encouraged to develop their skills set to enable them to take on new roles and responsibilities. Learning needs were discussed in team meetings and individual needs were identified in annual appraisals which staff found helpful. Leaders told us they wanted to support and encourage staff to develop within the service. Leaders had a good understanding of the practice’s performance and knew where improvements were required.

The practice had systems in place to learn and improve. Team meetings were used as a tool to share learning, audits were carried out to improve outcomes for people and systems were in place to monitor and improve performance. Any concerns identified during our assessment were rectified by the practice promptly. There were no significant shortfalls identified during our assessment.