We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Beacon Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Beacon Centre, you can give feedback on this service.
Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as good because:
Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Care (PTHC), also referred to as ‘the hospice’ throughout the report, serves the adult population of West Surrey and part of North East Hampshire. Services are provided from two locations; the Hospice in Farnham (In-Patient Unit, Community Services, Day Hospice, Out-Patient appointments and through Patient and Family Support) and at the Beacon Centre in Guildford. This inspection looked at the services provided at the Beacon Centre which included an Outpatient service, Day service; Community team and the Hospice Care at Home Team. In 2014 a joint proposal was submitted by PTHC and another local provider to their four Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) to integrate the EOL community services across the area. A new service contract was drawn up and the Beacon Centre was incorporated into PTHC in 2015. The PTHC has a large multi-professional team consisting of medical staff, nurses, social workers, therapists and chaplaincy supported by people facing volunteers.
There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
The Beacon Centre provided an outstanding service that creatively enabled people to have the choice to receive end of life care (EOL) at home, if this was their preference, and responded promptly to clinical deterioration in times of need. People spoke of a service that was tailor-made for them, highly personalised and focussed on their individual needs and that of their families. PTHC had developed their community service innovatively with local agencies to ensure their local population would receive the support they needed at the time they needed it and in a way and place that best suited them.
People, their relatives, staff and professionals spoke overwhelmingly of the positive support, guidance and healthcare interventions people had received. They were full of praise for the staff in terms of their exceptional kindness, compassion and knowledge about end of life matters. Staff went out of their way to ensure people were involved in decisions about their care and used technology creatively to stay in touch with people. The day service used gardening interventions creatively as a therapeutic activity to entwine spirituality with rehabilitative palliative care. People told us this had brought them and their families hope and peace through the rhythms and cycles of life seen within nature and horticulture.
Managers showed outstanding leadership and they recognised, promoted and implemented innovative ways of working in order to provide a high-quality service. This forward thinking approach had resulted in a creative provider led commissioning arrangement to ensure people received high quality integrated community care to support their preference to receive end of their life care at home. The integration of the Beacon Centre into PTHC was managed creatively ensuring staff and people were involved in the development of the values and vision of the service. Governance of the service was of a high standard and robust quality assurance systems were in place that showed people were right to have confidence in this local hospice.
The hospice offered end of life care training opportunities for their staff and other health and social care professionals. Through this training and other service developments the hospice had enabled people to receive end of life care closer to home and reduced the need for hospital admissions. Staff were involved in the development of working practice, listened to and supported to offer high quality end of life healthcare and support. The management team promoted a culture of openness, reflection and excellence.
People's informed consent was embodied into all work that was undertaken at the hospice and people who did not have capacity to consent to their care and treatment had their rights protected under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. The various departments within this hospice worked well together so that people had a seamless experience of moving from one department to another as the need arose.
People were protected from harm and abuse and robust staff recruitment procedures were followed to keep people safe. There were sufficient staff to meet people's individual needs and to respond flexibly to changes and unforeseen emergencies. Systems were effective to manage known risks associated with people's care and treatment needs such as falls, pressure sores, poor nutrition and hospice acquired infections.
Guidance was provided to ensure people were supported to eat and drink sufficiently and adjustments were made to ensure people at risk of choking could eat and drink safely. Regular reviews took place of people's symptoms and changes were made as required to ensure people's pain would be well managed.
The service listened to people, families and staff, involving them in the running and development of the service. They actively sought out their views and used feedback as an opportunity to improve and develop the service. There was a kindness and warmth about the management team that made them approachable to everyone and people knew them by their first names and told us they were visible and solved matters when they were raised.