Lifeways Community Care (Halifax)

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

At our last inspection we rated this key question inadequate. At this assessment, the provider had improved, and this key question is now rated good. The provider is no longer in breach of regulation in relation to person centred care.

People were at the centre of care plan development and chose who they would like to be involved in this process. There were a number of examples of how people had been empowered and supported to make positive changes to their lives. People set personal goals, and we saw examples of huge achievements. Systems were in place to support people with future planning.

Staff had built relationships with healthcare professionals to ensure people had access to appropriate and timely treatment or support. Information was shared with them in ways which met their needs. The registered manager had shared learning about reasonable adjustments to improve people’s access to services.

People felt listened to and systems were in place to make sure people had opportunities to be involved in and give their views about the service. People were well supported to try new experiences and the service promoted and celebrated people’s protected characteristics.

This service scored 86 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People said they were included in plans for their own care and treatment and supported by staff to make their own decisions. One person told us, "Before I used to be very quiet and not ask for help but now, I know I can say what I want."

There were a number of examples of how people had been empowered and supported to make positive changes to their lives. These included people gaining control of their finances, a person speaking for the first time in 3 decades, a person training for and getting a job supporting older people who are lonely through telephone companionship, and a person going out into the community for the first time in several years.

Staff talked about involving people in their care and treatment plans, and involving relatives where people wanted this to happen and were able to make their own informed choices.

A staff member said, "We don't do anything here without people's input, this is their home and we're lucky to be allowed to work in it. Our job is to make sure they can do what they want to do."

The registered manager told us all people were involved in their own support planning and had friends, family, advocate or other professionals involved where they choose to do so.

The registered manager and staff gave us many examples of how the person centred approach to care had very positively enhanced people's lives.

We observed a wholly person-centred approach to care. Staff tailored their approach including how they communicated with people according to their individual needs and abilities. Care plans reflected people’s needs and wishes. Daily notes reflected daily activity and detailed what choices people had made, what special things they had done and how their health had been that day. We saw proud files in the houses which showcased people’s achievements and activities. People set personal goals, and we saw outcomes of these. For example, 1 person had started writing their own daily notes, another person had produced a celebration tea for their housemates, and others had completed a drama course. Some people had completed 5 and 10K runs and their new goals were to train for and complete the next Great North Run.

People said they were able to attend doctors and hospital appointments when they needed to and were able to undertake activities in the local community. We saw feedback from a person’s family who commented how their loved one’s health had improved, and the difference that staff support to engage in the service’s running club had made to their physical and psychological well-being. The person had had completed a 10k run and was training for a half marathon.

Staff said they worked to build relationships with other healthcare professionals to ensure people had access to appropriate and timely treatment. Staff gave an example of person at risk of a particular health condition, where building a positive relationship with the GP meant the surgery understood any contact was due to a genuine concern. Therefore, the surgery responded quickly to provide necessary medications.

We did not receive any information from partners in relation to care provision, integration and continuity. However, we saw positive feedback from visiting professionals about the care and support people received in ‘Proud’ files.

Staff worked with other organisations to make sure care and support was consistent and coordinated. This included specialist health and social care professionals and community services.

People showed us examples of how information was shared with them in ways which met their needs. For example, easy read or pictorial information.

Staff gave examples of using Makaton to communicate with people and understanding visual responses from people who did not fully communicate verbally. They showed us examples of pictorial information used to communicate people's care and support needs.

At the time of the inspection care records were in paper format but were being moved onto an electronic system. The registered manager told us they were looking into how they would make sure people had access to these, and that people would be fully involved in the development and review of their electronic records

Easy read documentation of all main policies were available in each service. People’s care files included an easy read complaints procedure to give people the information to make a complaint should they need to.

People told us about the ‘Quality Checker’ role for people using the service. This involved people reviewing certain criteria at other properties and feeding back to staff and management about positives and areas for improvement. This was a very positive and valuable role which promoted people's involvement in the service.

People told us they were confident to raise concerns, either informally to service staff or formally to management. Where they had raised concerns, they said appropriate actions had been taken to resolve these.

Staff said people were able to raise concerns informally with them or were encouraged to raise formal complaints with management if they preferred, and that people felt comfortable to do this.

People were involved in the recruitment and selection of staff.

Formal feedback from people was encouraged through annual surveys but people were able to give feedback to service managers at any time. People had access to area and service manager’s telephone numbers so they could message and call if they needed to.

‘Our voice’ meetings were held for anybody using the service to attend. These meetings were to discuss what was or wasn’t working for people and how the service could be improved. Two representatives from the service attended regional ‘Our voice’ meetings.

There was an ‘Events committee’ made up of staff and people using the service to come up with ideas for social events. A 'Fun Committee' had also been set up to organise enjoyable activities.



Friends and family days were held at the service’s office where people were encouraged to speak with the registered manager.

People said they were supported to access medical care and any activities that they wanted to complete.

When a person needed to go to hospital in an emergency, staff told the paramedics that to lessen the person’s anxiety, they would need a private room on arrival at the hospital. This was organised and the person’s experience was a good one. We also saw examples of arrangements made by staff to collaborate with health care professionals to enable people to access services without anxiety. For example, arranging familiarisation visits to dental surgeries.

Staff talked about supporting people to access medical appointments or working with services to arrange home visits where this was better for the person. They said people were supported to undertake activities they liked and positive relationships with the community meant they were able to plan and access most things without issue. An example was given of people doing hydrotherapy to support their bone and muscle strength.

The registered manager had recently attended a conference for a national service improvement programme for people with a learning disability or autism. They had shared their learning from this conference about reasonable adjustments to improve people’s access to services with staff.

The registered manager was working with staff to improve people’s access to services. For example, supporting people to visit new places, such as hospitals, to familiarise themselves with the location and staff before attending an appointment. The service was also making some reels for people to watch to reduce anxiety about some medical procedures.

Systems were in place to make sure additional staff could be called upon to support people in emergency situations.

Staff went the extra mile to make sure people could experience new things. For example, a person was taking a flight abroad after staff found and worked with a specialist company to enable this.

The registered manager told us about how the service promoted and celebrated people’s protected characteristics. For example, they had organised awareness days including culture and diversity day, a pride party and various religious celebrations.

Staff had worked with health professionals such as GP’s and dentists, to look at how reasonable adjustments could be made when supporting people to access their services. Staff had involved the community learning disability nurse to support with this.

Equality and diversity was discussed in staff meetings and 2 members of staff had been appointed to the national Lifeways Diversity and Inclusion council.

Staff received training in understanding and respecting people’s protected characteristics.

One person’s relative told us about how they had been involved in plans for their loved one to continue their education. Another relative said their loved one had an end-of-life plan in place.

Staff had successfully advocated for a person to spend the last days of their life in their home rather than in hospital.

The registered manager told us about a number of events that had been arranged with a local hospice. This included 2 friends and family days to discuss and explore advanced planning.

Staff received advanced planning training from the local hospice as well as Lifeways own training.

The registered manager told us staff had recently provided an excellent standard of palliative and end of life care to a person who used the service. Where a family had been unable to do this, staff had arranged a person’s funeral and wake in line with their end-of-life plan.

Planning for the future was in place where people wanted this. Care plans showed people, relatives and, where appropriate, health professionals had been involved in discussions about people’s future. These considered people’s cultural and religious needs.

End of life documentation was in place and people had been offered the opportunity to complete this. A new more detailed section on advance planning was being implemented for use in the electronic care record system. Where appropriate people had DNACPR or ReSPECT plans in place. These are advanced planning documents which give details of the care people want to receive as they approach the end of their lives.