Lifeways Community Care (Warwickshire & Coventry)

Updated 16 June 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in six ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 14 March 2023 and ended on 27 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on the 14 March 2023 and visited people in their flats in the supported living settings on the 14, 15, 16 and 17 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authorities who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people who used the service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 16 staff including the regional director, registered manager, service managers, team leaders and care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people’s care records and a range of medication records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment and supervision. We spoke with 1 professional who worked with the service. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 16 June 2023

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Lifeways Community Care (Warwickshire & Coventry) is a supported living service providing personal care to people with learning disabilities and autistic people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection there were 19 people receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support:

Most people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests, the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. For one person further review was required to ensure they were being supported to maximise their capacity and choices.

Some people’s care plans did not contain key information on how to support them, but staff knew people well. Staff received training and had competency assessments to ensure they had the skills to work with people.

Right Care:

The quality of person-centred care people received across the different supported living settings was not consistent. In one setting improvements were required to ensure people received care that supported their needs and aspirations, whilst in other settings this was in place for people.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

People told us they received care from staff who were kind. We found however, that some language used in care plans needed improvements to ensure people were treated with dignity and respect.

Right Culture:

The management team were making changes to promote a positive culture and people and staff told us they had seen improvements. These improvements required further embedding and to be applied consistently to ensure people’s wishes, needs and rights were at the heart of everything they did. The registered manager was quick to respond to the concerns we identified on inspection, however systems needed improving to ensure concerns were identified to ensure a culture of continuous improvement.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 24 January 2023) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made however, there were ongoing breaches of regulation 9, person-centred care and regulation 17 good governance.

This service has been in Special Measures since 27 September 2022. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 25 July 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. We undertook this inspection to check if they now met legal requirements.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified continued breaches in relation to person-centred care and governance. We have imposed conditions on the provider's registration and asked them to send a monthly report that shows what action they are taking.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.