Leicestershire Community Support Scheme

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. At our last assessment we rated this key question outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 80 (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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations, including other health and social care professionals, with kindness and respect. People received support that met their individual needs by staff who knew them well. A person told us, “I like my flat. The best thing about it is I have made friends. I like the staff here; they help me.” A second person told us, “I am happy here. I like the staff, and I feel safe. I like to look out the window so staff made sure I had a room on the front so I can watch what’s happening.” A relative told us, “[Name of staff member] is very good and a good advocate for [Name]”. We observed staff communicated positively with people and knew how to find out what they wanted. People chose where they spent their time, and we observed staff respected people’s right to privacy.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. People’s care plans detailed their individual needs and preferences. We saw interactions between people and staff were personalised. People’s support plans included their goals and aspirations, and they were supported to work towards and achieve these. For example, people had identified goals such as saving up for particular items, pursuing hobbies or learning a new skill. Records showed staff met with people regularly to assess if they had completed goals or had the right support to work towards them.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People shared how they were supported by staff to have choice and control in their daily lives and were encouraged to be independent and to make decisions about their care, treatment and wellbeing as much as possible. One person described how staff respected their independence and their abilities, providing support when the person requested this. We saw a person supported to make their own drinks and get drinks for other people sharing their home. People were enabled to go on holiday or breaks with family or staff, where they chose to, which promoted their confidence and enhanced their independence. Most relatives felt their family members had good choice and independence in their supported living. A relative told us, “[Name] goes out by themselves and socialises with other people. They are more than happy with this and can speak up for themselves; they are becoming more independent.” One relative felt staff kept their family member safe but were reticent with positive risk taking, feeling staff could do more to support their family member to go out more frequently.

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. People’s care plans included information around their preferred communication methods and how to identify and intervene at an early stage when people showed signs of distress. We saw staff were consistently responsive to people’s needs including sitting with them when staff identified they needed reassurance, responding to requests to go out and providing people with information when they needed it.

The provider always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and was exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care. Support measures were in place to allow staff to de-brief after incidents or events that caused them stress, and to raise any queries or concerns. Staff told us they felt supported by management particularly in relation to their wellbeing and personal circumstances and had a sense of belonging. Staff comments included, “I have really good support from my manager which helps me do the best job I can. I have worked in various industries, and this is the only one that gives me job satisfaction knowing that I am doing the best I can for people and making a difference” and “Mencap is so supportive. They have supported me personally with flexible working and this helps me to achieve a good work/life balance.” A manager described how they had supported staff from overseas to learn how to recognise money and manage finances in the UK. This helped them in their work and in their personal lives. All the staff we spoke with described strong support with their wellbeing and could not identify any improvements.