The Beacon Centre

Updated 4 March 2022

The Beacon is a community-based centre providing a base for the community multi-professional team for home-based care, as well as outpatient and living well group services. It operates on a day hospice basis to patients referred by GPs and other clinicians and pre-assessed by clinical nurse specialists. The provider has a range of additional services and teams, including care at home, living well, bereavement support, and pastoral care. We included additional services in our inspection where they were provided from, or as an extension to, this location.

From April 2020 to April 2021 this location, including the care at home service, cared for 2,013 patients. This was an increase of 3.2% on the previous year. In this period, 71% of patients were living with cancer. The living well team supported 699 patients in the same period and carried out 6,774 remote contacts. This was an increase of 111% on the previous year.

Updated 4 March 2022

Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• People were involved in decisions about their care and treatment when approaching end of life and staff documented these in their records. There were joint electronic systems with local GP surgeries and hospitals to ensure effective communication about people’s medicines. Staff gave people information about their medicines in a format they could understand. There was a good medicine incident reporting culture and the service engaged in educating other healthcare professionals about end-of-life care medicines.
• Staff provided excellent care and treatment, delivered by highly trained, professional staff who received specialist development. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available flexibly and at short notice.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families, and carers. The service constantly asked people for feedback, which was persistently and overwhelmingly positive and exceeded the provider’s expected standards. The team’s internal audit system and care ethos that focused on patient centred, compassionate care furthered these standards.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it. Staff integrated the complementary range of clinical specialties were seamlessly and there was a clear focus on system-wide, coordinated care provision.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values and applied them effectively and innovatively in their work. Staff felt respected, supported, and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

Updated 4 March 2022

The Beacon Centre provides outpatient and community hospice services. We rated it good because care was safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led with a number of outstanding features.