Poole and Bournemouth Shared Lives

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

Staff were supported by the management to understand the vision for the service. Staff were supported well and confident in both the service's polices and procedures following a robust induction and continuous professional development. People felt staff knew them well and were kind.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Kindness, compassion and dignity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

People told us they were always able to make choices and had opportunities to increase their independent living skills. One person stated, “I have lost my confidence after some falls and lockdowns. My carer noticed I stopped going out and slowly got me back to using taxis. I have my own front door key so I can let myself in and we are going to try bus routes next!” People told us it was important they were able to speak for themselves and demonstrate how they were fully equal to professionals supporting them. BCP Shared Lives had a ‘Client Involvement Group’ which was chaired by a person using the service and the views of people unable to attend in person meetings were actively collected by the shared lives officers who were responsible to oversee each person’s placement. This included supporting people to maintain relationships with family members and friends. People told us, “I’ve had the same shared lives officer since I joined nearly a decade. I know I can phone them in the office and they’ll sort anything out.” And, “My shared lives officer found my carer, they found me a better one when things changed and now I’m at home with a carer who is family to me now.” People were supported to achieve their outcomes and enhance their independence.

Staff spoke about people with kindness and compassion. All staff spoken to stated they are supported by the registered manager to achieve team goals and the best outcomes for people meant they worked creatively and empowered people to believe that anything was possible. Staff worked with other stakeholders to help realise people's ambitions. People using BCP Shared Lives had been involved with the local authority’s ‘Learning Disability Partnership Board’ They had actively participated in reviews of facilities and services, sharing ideas with professionals as to how local spaces and events can be more accessible. The service shared details of “The Big Plan” which was a project led by people with learning disabilities about how their lives could be improved, documenting progress in areas such as supporting people to gain paid employment and demonstrating the work completed to raise the profile of the Shared Lives model of care using social media. Shared lives officers explained the importance of “rigorously searching and scrutinising” what makes placements successful for people, and how elements of this “Magic can be captured and replicated for each person and shared lives carer match.”

Following a thorough matching and recruitment process the provider ensured people were actively involved in writing their care plans. This meant care plans were person centred and had current information to promote people’s independence. Care plans and reviews focussed on aspirational goals for the future and the outcomes that people wanted to achieve. Care plans ensured people’s needs were known, for example during transition to different services. They considered whether people wanted to move on to more independent or step-down services so that they could be supported by their carers to try creative ways to achieve this through their care plan outcomes. This included where respite services were required.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.