Publish date: 6 September 2023
Culture, focus on care and leadership praised in NHS trust’s maternity inspection
Inspectors have praised the ‘culture of deep respect’ between staff and their focus on the needs of people in their care in a glowing maternity inspection report of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The trust, which runs hospitals and community healthcare services in Northumberland and North Tyneside, has retained its good rating for its maternity services from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The inspections, which took place in April this year, covered the trust’s main maternity service at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) in Cramlington and one of its midwife-led units, at Hexham General Hospital.
The Hexham facility was recently upgraded, with the new unit opening in June, while the rating for NSECH represents maintained standards following a ‘requires improvement’ grade back in 2015
Katy Lissaman, Northumbria Healthcare’s acting head of midwifery, said: “I am absolutely delighted that the CQC has rated our services as good and the reports clearly reflect the efforts the team make for the women and birthing people, their babies and families in our care.
“Coming on the back of being named a positive outlier in the CQC 2022 Maternity Survey, I would like to thank all the staff for their continued compassion and commitment, as well as the support we receive from the wider trust.
“I am extremely proud of the care we deliver, and we will carry on working hard to ensure it remains of the highest quality.”
The services at both NSECH and Hexham were rated good for being well-led, with one report noting that leaders ‘had a deeply embedded system of support for staff to develop their skills, take on more senior roles and work in the best way possible for the benefit of women, birthing people and babies’.
‘Staff felt respected, supported, and valued, and there were high levels of staff satisfaction’, it adds. ‘They were focused on the needs of women receiving care.’
The report went on to say: ‘The service had an open culture where women, their families and staff could raise concerns without fear.’
It also highlighted that leaders and staff ‘actively and openly engaged with women, staff, equality groups, the public and local organisations to plan and manage services. They collaborated with partner organisations to help improve services for women.’
In terms of safety, which also received a good rating at both hospitals, the report noted that staff ‘took action to remove and minimise risks’ and also identified and quickly acted upon women at risk of deterioration’. Inspectors also concluded that the service managed safety incidents well, with staff ‘recognising and reporting incidents and near misses’.
Marion Dickson, Northumbria Healthcare’s executive director for nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals, said: “While we are extremely pleased with this report, we are always looking at ways to improve and I have every confidence that this report will feed into the team’s ongoing work to do everything as well as it possibly can be.
“There is no room for complacency, but staff should be very proud of this report and the picture it paints of the service they provide to the people of Northumberland, North Tyneside and beyond.”
The report highlighted several areas of outstanding practice including the leadership ethos, the culture of deep respect between staff, and senior leaders’ relationship with the Maternity Voices Partnership.
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Carolyn Jenkinson, the CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said: “When we inspected maternity services at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, we saw a service that provided good care to women, people using the service, and their babies. It was led by committed and effective leaders who had created a kind and caring culture across both hospitals.
“Staff we met at every level displayed an overwhelming sense of pride and happiness at work. They promoted a culture that placed people’s care at the heart of the service, and they recognised the power of caring relationships between people. This was reflected in recent survey responses where most people who had received care described staff as excellent.
“It was positive to see the service’s commitment in trying to tackle health inequalities. Leaders understood that these affected treatment and outcomes for people from ethnic minority and disadvantaged groups. The service created feedback cards in the five most spoken non-English languages, and a training programme was launched to educate staff on how to identify and reduce health inequalities.
“The maternity service should also be commended for demonstrating some outstanding practice. For example, last year it won the Bright Ideas in Healthcare finals for its Foetal Wellbeing Education Programme. In addition, senior leaders have developed an excellent relationship with the Maternity Voices Partnership and supported them to engage with harder to reach groups in the local area so their voices could be heard.
“We will continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure people and their babies can continue to receive a good standard of care.”
The full reports are available on the CQC’s website.
Media contact
Ben O’Connell, external communications manager, Northumbria Healthcare
Benjamin.O'Connell@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk or 07833 046680.