PLACE 2019 results released

The 2019 Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) scores were officially released last week Thursday (30 January 2020) and CNWL has again performed above the national average score for all six of the PLACE domains.

Under PLACE, all NHS funded healthcare providers in the UK are required to undertake an in-depth assessment of the non-clinical aspects for all qualifying in-patient settings as part of a national programme overseen by NHS Digital on behalf of NHS England & NHS Improvement. These assessments were undertaken between September and November 2019.

The assessments focus on how the environment supports service provision and patient care, looking at core aspects such as cleanliness, food, maintenance, as well as the extent to which the environment supports privacy and dignity, dementia and disability compliance.

Prior to this collection PLACE underwent a significant national review which commenced in 2018 and was completed in the summer of 2019. The review, which ensured that the programme remained relevant and delivered its aims, included significant changes to question sets, form structure and scoring criteria. As the changes have been extensive organisations are being discouraged from using 2018 PLACE programme scores for comparison. The 2019 scores will set a new baseline going forward.

PLACE assessments are undertaken by teams of peer reviewing NHS and private/independent health care provider professionals, alongside patient assessors (both through patient associations and CNWL user groups) who make up at least half of each assessment team. CNWL also welcomed NHS England & NHS Improvement colleagues onto two assessments as well as independent reviewers from other Trusts.

Included below is a table showing the 2019 Trust average scores in comparison to the National average scores for each of the six PLACE domains. 

It is a great achievement that CNWL has scored in excess of 10% higher than the national average for both ‘Dementia’ and ‘Disability’. In addition, the Trusts high ‘Cleanliness’, ‘Food & Hydration’, ‘Condition, Appearance & Maintenance’ and ‘Privacy, Dignity & Wellbeing’ scores have been maintained comfortably above the national averages, with ‘Cleanliness’ once again scoring over 99%.  This reflects all the hard work that is being delivered on a daily basis across the Trust by both QTS and CNWL staff.

Action plans are now being worked on by the sites to address any further improvements identified during this year’s assessments, to make sure that where possible these are addressed in time for the 2020 programme.

To view the official NHS Digital release, the full national report and PLACE data please read this publication. 

If you would like to know about the forms and the scoring criteria please visit the NHS Digital website.