The Buckingham Centre Also known as Slough Travel Clinic

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 7 quality statements for this key question to determine if the provision of services were well-led. There had been improvements in the overall provision and governance of services since the previous inspection. The provider had implemented and sustained new processes to govern and improve the travel health service. Furthermore, the provider was displaying the updated performance assessment within the premises and on the new public facing website. These actions were now ensuring that requirements relating to Regulation 17 (good governance) and Regulation 20A (requirement to display performance assessment) were now being met.

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 spoke positively about the vision and values of the service and how their work fed into the overall strategy. Staff also told us, that despite 2 different elements of the service, a regulated service (travel health) and a non-regulated service (occupational health), the teams worked well together and there was a sense of togetherness.

There was clear vision and shared direction for the service, this was referred to and documented as ‘The Collingwood Way’. This document was shared with all staff and referred to during meetings and included sections such as culture, values and Collingwood commitments to staff, patients and global travel health.

Staff told us, whilst the team was small, the leadership, both clinical leadership and non-clinical leadership was positive, inclusive and accessible. Staff and leaders were knowledgeable about travel medicine issues and priorities for the quality of services. This included membership of different travel medicine societies and networks, for ongoing training, development and peer support. Clinical staff were also registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and were up to date with re-validation. This meant they met regulatory standards and were subject to re-validation of their registration to ensure the delivery of safe and effective care and treatment to patients.

As part of the general improvements following the March 2023 inspection, the provider had reviewed communication across the service. This included frequent meetings and updates to keep staff informed of changes within the service.

Staff spoke positively of the culture and the ability to speak up and raise concerns. Staff told us, the leadership team was open and supportive to listen to new ideas, suggestions and where appropriate staff concerns.

Whilst there were processes and policies which supported staff to speak up and raise concerns, these processes did not contain pertinent information such as internal or external contacts details, should staff wish to raise a concern. This was highlighted to the provider during the assessment, they responded positively and were reviewing the existing arrangements in response to our feedback.

Staff spoke positively about working at the service and told us there was an inclusive and fair culture. Staff said they could access development including training and all received regular appraisal.

The service actively promoted equality and diversity, and all staff had received equality and diversity training. On review of documents and policies, equality and diversity featured heavily as part of the providers commitment to inclusion. Furthermore, policies included reference to equality and diversity issues such as the promotion of global human rights.

Staff were clear on their roles and accountabilities. They told us governance arrangements had improved with the implementation of additional policies, procedures and activities to improve safety.

There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management. This included processes and systems which were evidence based, clearly set out, understood by staff and effective. There were clear policies and arrangements in place for the availability, integrity and confidentiality of data, records, and data management systems. Following the last inspection and launch of a new public facing website, the service was displaying their most recent CQC performance assessment.

Patient feedback collected for this assessment had no specific views or concerns about partnership or community working.

Staff and leaders told us they had good relationships with healthcare professionals within the travel health sector to support improvement, care provision and joined-up care. This included the national Yellow Fever helpline, staff contacted to discuss complex cases.

We did not receive any feedback from partners regarding partnership and community working as part of this assessment. We did however hear from staff who worked across both services for the provider. They described how the regulated service (travel health service) and the non-regulated service (occupational health service) worked well together. This included sharing any transferable improvements across both services, for example the improvements made following our previous inspection.

There were processes to support the service to collaborate and work in partnership with the sector, for example, different travel medicine organisations. The provider told us they used these networks to identify new or innovative ideas that can lead to better outcomes for patients.

Throughout all stages of the assessment, staff and leaders told us of the improvements they had made since the last inspection. Independently, staff told us they were proud of their achievements and were confident improvements would be sustained. Staff also told us how they monitored and reviewed their activity and other activity within the travel medicine sector. They told us, this helped the service understand and predict future risks and impacts to the service.

Throughout the assessment, there was evidence of systems and processes for learning and improvement. Evidence collected for this assessment demonstrated the provider had reflected upon the last inspection and implemented a series of changes. Whilst activity within the service was growing in terms of appointments, clinical audit activity started to increase. As a registered yellow fever centre, we saw the service audited this element of the travel clinic which met the requirements to be a certified yellow fever centre. Yellow fever is a serious viral infection spread by mosquitoes and is found in certain areas of Africa and South and Central America. Visitors to these areas should have the yellow fever vaccination to reduce the likelihood of infection. We also saw the provider had improved processes to share improvements, learning and innovation across both the non-regulated service (occupational health service) to implement transferable learning to the regulated service (travel health). This was demonstrated through shared learning between the services as the non-regulated service was undergoing re-accreditation within the occupational health sector.