Lifeways Community Care (Warwickshire & Coventry)

People and staff worked together to identify any risks people may experience and to put measures in place to reduce risks. There were sufficient staff available to meet people’s needs. Staff were recruited safely and received training to help them to provide good care to people. This included how to promote people’s safeguarding and how to support people to maintain a safe and clean environment. People were supported to have their medicines regularly. There was one instance where a person’s medication protocol had not been reviewed as required. Senior staff took action to address this. Where lessons to be learned were identified these had been communicated to staff. However, we found processes to ensure opportunities for taking learning from incidents required further development and embedding.

People’s needs were identified and the information was used to plan people’s care. Staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink so they would remain well. People’s rights were promoted by the staff supporting them. Staff assisted people to achieve good health outcomes. Where people wanted support to attend routine and emergency health care this was promptly actioned by staff. However, we found systems to ensure information required to support people’s treatment was consistently communicated to other health professionals required further development.

People had built caring relationships with the staff supporting them. Relatives told us new staff had started to get to know their family members well. Staff understood what was important to people and assisted them promptly when they wanted support. People were empowered to decide what care they wanted and staff assisted them to live their lives as they wished. Staff well-being needs were considered by senior staff.

People’s individual wishes and goals were now focused on by staff. There had been changes to the staff supporting people, but new staff were supported to find out what mattered to the people they cared for. People were now achieving better outcomes and enjoying life more. People’s wishes at the end of their lives had started to be considered by staff, with relatives consulted as part of the process. Staff knew how people preferred to be communicated with and supported them appropriately. However, we found an instance where one person’s communication preferences had changed, but this had not been reflected in their care plan. Senior staff agreed to update the person’s care plans in response to our feedback. Systems to manage concerns and complaints and to communicate information to other health professionals were in place, but required further embedding.

Staff were positive about how the service was developing and were supported to provide good care to people through regular and supportive contact with senior staff and the registered manager. Staff were now encouraged to make any suggestions and raise any concerns and were now confident these would be listened to. The provider had introduced an equality and diversity council, which staff contributed to. This helped to ensure staff needs would be met. People, relatives and other professionals were empowered as partners in care. There had been improvements in the way some governance systems worked. Checks were undertaken on the care provided by staff. However, some governance systems required further enhancement, to ensure the registered manager consistently had an oversight of the care provided at the service, and to maximise opportunities for taking learning from all incidents at service level.