- Homecare service
Lifeways Community Care (Taunton)
Assessment report published 4 July 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 18 March to 15 May 2025
The service is a supported living service providing personal care to people with a learning disability and autistic people living in their own homes. At the time of the assessment, 29 people were receiving the regulated activity personal care within 12 supported living services.
We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
We carried out this assessment in response to concerns we had received.
The providers governance and oversight systems had not identified all concerns we found and ensured that all necessary actions had been taken following our last inspection.
Although there had been some improvement, and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations concerning safeguarding and staffing. We found repeated breaches of regulations concerning safe care and treatment, consent, dignity and respect and governance.
The provider’s governance and oversight systems had not identified concerns we found or ensured that necessary action had been taken following our last inspection.
People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and the culture within the service was not always positive. Where people lacked capacity to make decisions, the provider failed to follow the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 code of practice.
People were not always protected from the risk of harm as staff did not always have all the information needed to meet people's needs safely.
Care records viewed throughout the assessment were of mixed quality and improvements were needed to ensure medicines records were accurate and up to date.
Safeguarding concerns had not always been responded to appropriately. People had their needs assessed when they first moved to the service, however people’s changing needs had not always been assessed appropriately.
People were being supported by enough staff who had been recruited safely. The provider supported staff wellbeing. Staff provided information in a format people could understand. The registered manager was open, honest and responsive throughout the assessment, acting on any queries raised.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to some of the concerns found at this assessment. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and or appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
People’s experiences of the support they received was not consistently positive. We interacted with a number of people within a number of different supported living services throughout our assessment. Two experts by experience also spoke with relatives for feedback on people’s care. Whilst some people and relatives were happy with the service, they felt safe and settled, and had their needs met effectively. Others were not fully satisfied and experienced less favourable outcomes.
One person told us they felt fully involved in their support. Other people could not directly tell us about their experience. Therefore, we used observation to assess their experiences of care. This approach showed people were not always included and listened to, and staff did not always interact positively with them.
People’s relatives provided mixed feedback regarding the service. Not all relatives felt they were fully involved in their loved one's care, and some felt when they raised concerns they were not always listened to.
People were exposed to a considerable level of inconsistency in terms of their experience of care, which varied across the different supported living services.
People and most relatives fed back positively about staff. Comments included, “The staff are lovely and respect [name of person]” and “The staff seem to enjoy their work and respect [name of person] as a person”.
Some relatives commented on the service being their loved one's ‘home’. Comments included, “The best thing about [service] is that [name of person] says that it is [name of person’s] home. [Name of person] is happy there”, “The best thing is that it feels like [name of person’s] home” and “[Name of person] is always happy to go back to the house when [name of person] has been home.”