Lifeways Community Care (East Midlands)

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them. Assessments of people's needs had been carried out prior to people using the service and involved the person and, where appropriate, their relatives and healthcare professionals, to ensure the service was able to meet the person's needs and preferences. Care plans and risk assessments clearly identified people's needs and risks. They showed the action staff should take to minimise any risk of avoidable harm. Staff told us how information was reviewed and regularly updated. Care plans also contained detailed information about people's choices and preferences. People were provided with opportunities to create their care plans in a format they preferred and be part of recording what they had done throughout their day.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. Staff followed advice provided by external professionals to maintain people’s safety. For example, where a person required a modified diet, staff worked with the person and their speech and language therapist to plan and prepare meals safely. All the staff we spoke with had a good understanding of the needs of the people they were supporting and demonstrated a safe and person-centred approach towards the care and support they delivered. One staff member told us, “We encourage people to develop their skills, we don’t push people, we go at a pace they are comfortable with.” And another staff member told us, “If someone wants to try something new it’s all risk assessed.”

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services. The staff team worked together with health and social care professionals to ensure care and support was received when required. We found arrangements in place to ensure people’s health and medicines were regularly reviewed. Staff told us they were kept up to date with any changes and the provider had various ways of ensuring information was shared appropriately and in a timely manner.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. The management team had created accessible information on how people could support their emotional wellbeing and express their emotions to help staff understand how they were feeling. Staff supported people to understand and their physical and emotional health. We also found staff had positively supported a person when they had decided to make a healthier lifestyle choice by giving up smoking.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent. The staff team were passionate about supporting people to achieve positive outcomes and gave us many examples of how they had supported people whilst using the service. One person had been supported to start learning to drive, another person had been supported to go swimming and had developed their skill to compete in a regional swimming competition winning a gold medal, since this they now volunteer and support people learning to swim.The provider with people’s consent recognised and celebrated people’s achievements in the service by sending out a newsletter to highlight people’s successes. Staff also compiled ‘proud files’ to evidence people’s achievements in each service.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. People had mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions in place when relevant. These had involved people who had the legal authority to do so on behalf of the person where appropriate. We reviewed mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions in place and found they had been completed in line with best practice, they contained details on how information had been provided and adapted to meet people’s their individual needs. This maximised people’s opportunities to make a decision about their care themselves. Staff had received training on the Mental Capacity act 2005 and were knowledgeable on how to support people in line with the act. We observed staff support people’s decision throughout our inspection. One staff member told us, “I would never do anything someone doesn’t want, I follow people’s choices.” Relatives confirmed people were supported to make choices. One relative told us, “Yes [person] is supported with buying their food, whether they want to clean, what they eat and when they want to wash.”