Leicestershire Community Support Scheme

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 good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (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. People and relatives confirmed this with one relative sharing, “I was involved in planning [Name’s] care when they moved in. I went to meet staff and view their home, and it was all very good.” People’s care plans included assessments of their needs, wishes and aspirations to ensure the service was able to meet these. Staff developed support plans with people which focused on what was important to them and goals they wanted to achieve. They supported people to assess they were happy with their tenancies and understood their rights and responsibilities.

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 demonstrated they understood best practice. For example, following positive behaviour strategies and personalised care approaches to ensure care, treatment and support reflected best practice guidance. Staff supported people to maintain links with family and friends. Relative comments included, “[Name] comes home to visit but is always happy to go back and speaks about staff in a positive way” and “I normally speak to the service manager; they keep me informed and come back to me really quickly.”

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. People’s care plans included their life history and experiences, what and who was important to them and their ambitions and goals. This helped people to tell their story and have their needs met consistently and safely. Staff shared relevant information and worked with external health and social care professionals to ensure people’s needs were understood and their wishes heard. For example, where people wanted to live and how they wanted to spend their time. This helped to ensure people had the right support in a timely way.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. People were supported by staff to live healthy lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. A person told us, “I like to go out for coffee and cake. I make my shopping list, and the staff take me to get it and help me plan meals.” Relatives explained staff had helped to guide people about healthy eating and lifestyle choices which had helped some people lose weight where this was an identified need. Relatives told us, “[Name] has good support around eating and drinking and staff accompany them to a Slimming Club as well. It’s a social buzz and they have lost weight as a result ” and “Staff support [Name] to physio which has helped them to recover from an injury.” Staff had recorded information about people’s healthcare needs in assessments and care plans. They shared guidance and information with staff about how these needs should be monitored and met. People and relatives told us staff supported them to access external healthcare services, including routine healthcare and specialist services.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves. Care records showed staff worked to achieve significant reductions in crisis situations and the use of restrictive interventions with improved outcomes for people. A staff member told us, “We help people to achieve positive outcomes from their care. For example, [Name] had experienced weight loss. We looked at all the reasons why this was happening and worked with [Name] to establish a trusting relationship and positive communication through consistent support. [Name] is now a healthy weight, and I think this is because [Name] feels safe and secure and is not anxious anymore.”

People consented to their care and treatment. They confirmed they were offered choices and these were respected. People were asked to agree and consent to care plans. Mental capacity assessments required further development as a generic ‘learning disability’ was recorded as the reason for people lacking capacity. This was not a personalised approach to assessing an individuals’ mental capacity. The registered manager told us they would address this following our inspection visit. Some people lacked the mental capacity to make certain decisions about their care. The registered manager assessed these and consulted with people’s representatives and followed legal authorities to help ensure decisions were made in their best interests. Staff had a good understanding of their responsibilities to obtain people’s consent to care. One member of staff told us, “The training is really good to help you understand people’s needs and how to communicate with them. This helps us to understand how people consent and make decisions, through their specific communication and responses.” We observed staff respected people’s choices and decisions during our inspection visit. For example, we saw people demonstrating choices as to where and how they wanted to spend their time and when they wanted to engage with staff. Staff respected this which demonstrated people were involved in choices about their care.