Archived: Lifeways Community Care

Updated 24 June 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Our inspection took place on 18 and 19 May 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

The Inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. Due to technical problems a PIR was not available and we took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law.

We requested information about the service from a number of Local Authorities (LA). They have responsibility for funding and monitoring the quality of the service. We received information from one LA which we used as part of the inspection of this service.

We visited the provider’s main office location. We spoke with five people who used the service, three relatives, five members of the care staff and the temporary area manager. A permanent area manager was recently appointed who was also present during the inspection and confirmed that they had applied to be the registered manager. We reviewed four care records for people that used the service, reviewed the records for six members of the care staff and records related to the management and quality of the service.

Updated 24 June 2016

The inspection took place on 18 and 19 May 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Lifeways Community Care is registered to provide personal care services to people in their own homes or supported living. People the service supports have a range of needs including physical disability and learning disability. On the day of the inspection, 45 people were receiving support. There was no registered manager in post, but the recently appointed area manager had applied to be registered. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act (2008) and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People told us they felt safe. We found from the care staff we spoke with that they knew how to keep people safe and where people were at risk what action they should take. The provider had an appropriate medicines procedure in place to ensure people received their medicines safely.

Care staff were able to receive support to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs. People were able to give their consent before they were supported. The provider ensured the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) were being adhered to so people’s human rights were not being restricted unlawfully.

People’s dignity, privacy and independence was respected. People’s needs were assessed appropriately and a care plan was in place which people were involved in. People were also involved in the decisions that related to the support they received and where reviews were carried out people told us they were involved.

People were able to receive support that was not only responsive to their needs but people were able to make decisions on the service they received. The provider ensured there was a complaints process in place to enable people to share any concerns they had.

We found that care records had improved since our last inspection and the provider was implementing a new care management process.

The provider carried out quality assurance checks and audits to ensure the quality of the service people received.

The provider used questionnaires to gather people’s views on the service they received.