Archived: Life Opportunities Limited

At our last inspection we had concerns with regards to the staff induction programme and staff who had not received relevant training for their role. Since the visit, the provider had introduced the Skills for Care Common Induction Standards (CIS) which staff were required to undertake once they commenced employment. We also had concerns with staff training. This was now more up to date and we noted staff had received recent training in medicines awareness, moving and handling, safeguarding and person centred care as recent as 2013.

Our last also inspection also highlighted gaps in records of staff training, supervision, appraisals and staff training profiles. We saw improvements during this visit and were shown these records were accurate, well maintained and available at all times.

In both houses we found that people were well supported and had developed good relationships with the staff. We observed that these relationships were warm, caring and we noticed staff attempting to encourage people to take part in activities and tasks to occupy their time. One person who used the service said to us 'I like it here. I like doing chores such as cooking, mopping the floor and cleaning the bathroom'.

We found that the provider had appropriate systems in place for the safe administration of people's medicines

We spoke with staff who said that they felt well supported in their job roles but had not received any mandatory training as part of their induction into the company. One member of staff, who had not worked in care previously, was administering medication without undertaking any formal training.

We found there were appropriate systems in place to monitor the quality of service provision and to deal with complaints effectively.

One person said, 'It's nice here'.

From our observations staff appeared to have a good understanding of people's needs. They had a gentle manner, were polite and respectful and offered lots of encouragement.

We found that people were offered meaningful opportunities or variety to their daily routine, enabling and promoting their independence.