WARRINGTON based care and support provider Lifeways Natural Networks Limited has been rated “Good” in all areas following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Natural Networksbased at Birchwood, is an individualised Support Service providing care and support to people living in ‘supported living’ settings, so they can live in their own home 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.
At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 1 person with personal care and support.
They 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.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
People were supported by staff to pursue their interests and achieve individual goals and aspirations.
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. People had the support they needed to make decisions following best practice in decision-making.
People accessed specialist health and social care support in the community. Staff supported people to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing.
Risks to people’s health, safety and well-being had been assessed and staff supported people to remain safe. People were supported with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcome.
Staff spoke respectfully about people and treated them with compassion. Positive relationships had been developed between staff and people supported. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity.
Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs and worked well other agencies to ensure they received the right support and were protected from abuse. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.
The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs.
People’s care and support plans reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their wellbeing. People and those important to them, were involved in planning their care.
The registered manager and staff team were passionate about creating a culture where people’s wishes, needs and rights were at the heart of the service. Care and support records were written in a way that truly showed people’s personalised, needs and wishes.
The leadership of the service had worked hard to create a learning culture where the whole organisation, including people using the service, had a role in improving the support people received.
People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity. Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families and other professionals as appropriate.
Robust checks were competed on the service to ensure people received high quality, safe care.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good, published on 2 February 2018.
The latest inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
The CQC will continue to monitor information they receive about the service, which will help inform when they next inspect.
