Lifeline Agency Limited

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• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

We assessed a total of 7 quality statements from this key question. People’s daily notes needed to be improved. Governance procedures needed to be more robust. The provider had appropriate policies in place. Staff felt supported by management.

This service scored 62 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff knew the aims and values of the organisation and felt the culture in the company was a positive one where staff felt valued. One staff member said, “Feels that she valued as a staff member and different cultures are respected.” The registered manager told us the values were person centred care and involved all staff from the top down. The registered manager vision was to grow the service and they hoped to double the business in the next year.

The service had a business plan and statement of purpose that set out their aims and visions. The provider had policies in place to support equality and diversity. However, after reading people’s daily care notes we were not assured that staff were always using respectful language and terminology due to language barriers and poor spelling. We relayed our concerns to the registered manager and they agreed to review these regularly and take action as needed to support staff to use appropriate language when recording care delivery.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager and senior team. One staff member told us, “No doubt the manager is extremely approachable and if she needs anything she is always there to help and is very approachable.” Another staff member said, “They are given plenty of support from the team and from managers and support is excellent.”

There was a stable and consistent management staff team who were skilled and motivated. They were clear about their own specific roles and responsibilities and how they contributed to the overall success of the service. They were open to feedback throughout the assessment process and took prompt when needed.

Staff we spoke with understood and were confident about using the whistleblowing procedure. Whistleblowing is where a member of staff can report concerns to a senior manager in the organisation, or directly to external organisations.

The provider had appropriate polices in place as well as a policy on Duty of Candour to ensure staff acted in an open and transparent way in relation to care and treatment if people came to harm. Minutes of meetings showed this was discussed with staff on the importance of raising concerns.

Most of the staff had come from overseas on a sponsorship programme and felt valued and welcomed. Staff told us they felt supported and had not experienced any discrimination amongst the staff team. One staff member said, “Feels they are inclusive that there are equal opportunities for all and gets the training needed it has been pleasurable working for the service.”

The provider held regular meetings with the staff to discuss any concerns. These included office meetings, team meetings and person specific meetings. These informed staff of any updates on people’s health and training opportunities. Records of meeting minutes showed these had been used to reinforce the values, vision and purpose of the service. Concerns from staff were followed up quickly.

The registered manager told us, they had a quality assurance manager that kept them updated and completed all service users’ audits and quality monitoring to support them to meet the required regulations. The registered manage however was not aware of the concerns we found and did not fully understand their duty in relation to implementing the MCA. Staff were positive about opportunities to improve the services and share any quality concerns they might have. One staff member said, “Staff senior meetings are not too formal have lunch with registered manager and as senior staff it’s easy to discuss any concerns and get support.”

The provider and senior staff used a series of audits to monitor the quality of the service. These included audits of health and safety, recruitment files, complaints and compliments. However, these had failed to identify the concerns we found in relation to people’s care, medicine and decision making records, staff recruitment records and scrutiny of incidents to determine notification to CQC. Monitoring arrangements for accidents and incidents and people’s records needed further development. The provider had processes in place to monitor call times to ensure prompt action could be taken when staff were running late for their care visits.

People were happy with their care and told us they were happy with how the agency worked with services in the community. One person told us, “They have done everything to help.” A relative said, “The manager came out last week to discuss the care. We are very happy with the service; they are all so kind and compassionate.” Another relative said, “The service has been extremely good and supportive.”

The registered manager told us how they engaged with community teams of health and social care professionals on a regular basis. They told us how this helped them learn and improve the service for people. They said, “Communication and transparency are very key and how quick you respond. Asking the right questions and continuous learning from safeguarding has helped us to manage things so that it doesn’t get out of hand.”

A professional told us, the provider engages well with Adult Services. They felt the provider had robust processes in place and maintained good oversight of the service including of delegated responsibilities to the office and senior staff in place.

Records showed the leadership team and staff worked effectively with health and social care professionals to meet people’s needs. Staff had undertaken reviews with relevant healthcare professionals as people’s needs had increased and made referrals to occupational therapists, community nurses and GPs when needed.

Staff felt supported and told us they were given full training, and that senior staff monitored them and offered support where required. The registered manager told us the electronic care planning system had been a great addition to the service and supported quality monitoring. For example; what policies had been read by staff. They told us that they could also upload external documents for staff and share with the team for example, the risk of fire for paraffin based emollient creams.

Staff meetings showed these were used as a way to make improvements to the service. It showed staff’s feedback was gathered and used to make improvements to the service and these improvements were then shared amongst the team. The electronic care planning system showed where improvement was needed, for example if a carer was running late.