Archived: Lifeways Community Care (Doncaster)

Updated 4 October 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection took place on the 23 & 25 August 2016 and was announced. The provider was given short notice of the visit to the office in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. The inspection was completed by an adult social care inspector.

To help us to plan and identify areas to focus on in the inspection we considered all the information we held about the service. Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well, and improvements they plan to make.

Before our inspection, we reviewed all the information we held about the service. We spoke with the local authority and other professionals to gain further information about the service.

We spoke with six people who used the service, and two relatives of people who used the service.

We spoke with five support workers, two service managers, the regional quality assurance manager and the registered manager. We looked at documentation relating to people who used the service, staff and the management of the service. We looked at six people’s care and support records, including the plans of their care. We also looked at five staff files. We saw the systems used to manage people’s medication, including the storage and records kept. We also looked at the quality assurance systems to check if they were robust and identified areas for improvement.

Updated 4 October 2016

The inspection took place on 23 & 25 August 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission in July 2012. The service was last inspected in January 2014 and the service was meeting the regulations we looked at.

Lifeways Community Care (Doncaster) is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people in Lincolnshire, Nottingham, Doncaster, Barnsley and Sheffield. They deliver care and support to people who live in supported living accommodation. The service supports people with a learning disability, physical disability and people with complex needs. At the time of this inspection there were 109 people using the service.

At the time of our inspection the service had a registered manager in post. 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 service had a policy in place to safeguard people from abuse. This included how to recognise the types of abuse. It also gave guidance to staff about how to report any concerns.

We looked at systems in place to manage people’s medicines in a safe way. We saw medication administration records (MARs) were completed appropriately.

We looked at care plans belonging to people who used the service and found they identified risks associated with people’s care. Staff we spoke with were knowledgeable about different risks and how to support them.

The service had a staff recruitment system in place to ensure the people employed were safe and suitable for the role they applied for. Pre-employment checks were obtained prior to people commencing employment.

Staff we spoke with told us they received appropriate training to carry out their role. This included subjects such as first aid, manual handling, food hygiene, infection control and safeguarding.

We found the service to be meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

We looked at care plans which contained information about the person’s capacity to make decisions. We saw that mental capacity assessments had been undertaken and best interest decisions had been made where people lacked capacity to make a decision.

We spoke with people who used the service and looked at their support plans and found that support plans clearly identified the nutritional support people required.

People were supported to maintain good health, have access to healthcare services and received ongoing healthcare support. We looked at people’s records and found they had received support from healthcare professionals when required.

Care plans we looked at contained information about people’s likes and dislikes and food preferences. For example, one person liked holidays, baking, shopping, and films.

Staff we spoke with knew how to preserve people’s dignity and gave examples of how they respected people.

People’s needs were assessed and care and support was planned and delivered in line with their individual care plan. We looked at a selection of care plans and found they included the desired outcomes for the person.

The service had a complaints procedure in place and the company welcomed them as an opportunity to learn, adapt, improve and provide a better service. People we spoke with were confident that any concerns raised would be dealt with appropriately and in a timely way.

We saw audits had been completed to ensure policies and procedures were being followed. Any areas of improvement raised at part of the audit process were placed on an action plan and service managers were responsible for taking action and feeding back the outcome to the registered manager.

Staff we spoke with felt the service was well led and the registered manager was approachable and listened to them. Staff confirmed they knew their role within the organisation and the role of others. They knew what was expected of them and took accountability at their level.