Select Lifestyles Limited

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• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

During this assessment the provider was in the process of transferring care records onto a new online system. The provider had in place local authority assessments to evidence best interest records. Staff had good knowledge of the mental capacity act, including capacity and consent. Staff were aware of how to support someone with fluctuating capacity. People’s needs and rights were supported. People’s care and treatment was effective due to their health, care, well-being, and communication needs being assessed with them. Peoples care plans are kept up to date with any assessments completed in a timely manner. Staff were aware people’s preferences and respected these in a person-centred way. People were aware of their rights around care and treatment.

This service scored 58 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Relatives we spoke with told us that staff also understood their needs and how best to support them. One relative told us, “They let me know if they need to change things or if I need to be at a meeting. They did a 3-way call with the hospital recently as well.” A further relative told us, “[Relative] went with a support plan but they said they needed to put their own together. I told them what they like and what not for them to put in there which wasn’t right to start with – they’ve listened to me now and changed things.” This did not cause impact to the person’s care.

Staff had good knowledge of how to support people’s needs, and what action to take if the person’s needs appeared to have changed. Managers had a set process to complete assessing people and consistently monitoring people’s needs.

The provider had an assessment process for any new people. This allowed a new person to be assessed to see if the provider was appropriate to meet their needs. An assessment document was completed, this included finding out a person’s likes and dislikes, personal characteristics and needs. The provider would then visit the person and complete a matching tool to ensure the person was appropriate for home they have are compatible to live with other service users in the house. Staff had access to documents on how to support people. Where people’s needs changed, these care planning documents were updated so staff understood people’s changes in needs. Care plans were electronic and allowed any changes to take place immediately. Managers would then alert staff to any changes via a communication alert.

Relatives told us they received communication around the health needs of their family member. One relative told us,” Yes, they do keep me in touch with things. They keep me informed what’s going on. However, one relative did feel communication could be improved and was not consistent.

Staff understood how to work with external health and social care providers, to provide support in the most effective way. We saw how managers worked with partners to improve the service provided and respond to any concerns raised around people’s care.

Care plans followed were clear on how to support people most effectively. For example, care plans outlined how people wish to receive their care and the way in which they wished for this to be delivered. Care plans recorded who should be involved in a person’s care and who has legal rights in supporting people with decisions. People were given opportunities to live as healthily as possible. For example, people who expressed an interest in or were required due to health reasons to lose weight, were supported to create a healthy eating plan and encouraged to purchase and follow a healthy balanced diet.

We observed people enjoyed spending time with their staff teams. Relatives we spoke with told us they felt involved in people’s care and took part in reviews. One relative told us,” I just talk to [staff member] and visit when they are on. We sit down and we talk. They get things done for [Person]”.

Staff we spoke with told us they had a good team morale, and all worked together. Each house had a scheme manager on site, staff told us they felt this was supportive and provided reassurance if they needed advice or had a concern. The provider had a structure of delegation which was, managing directors, registered manager, locality manager, scheme managers and support workers.

Partners provided feedback as part of this assessment. Partners told us that the provider responds to complaints raised and will complete actions. Partners did raise concerns about the numbers of complaints in various Select lifestyles supported living properties, these were cases in progress and requiring action. This included open safeguarding’s

There was a policy and procedure to assess people’s needs when moving into homes or transferring to other services. This included full details of people’s care needs and health professionals that are to be involved in people’s care. For example, where a person was assessed to have eating and drinking difficulties, the record of support and contact details would be included in the persons assessment.

People mostly told us they had a good range of meal choices. One relative told us,” “[Relative] was just eating pizza, chips and nuggets which wouldn’t be what they chosen because they like homecooked food. I spoke to Select Lifestyles about this. It has improved as far as I’m aware, I think [relative] has his own food shop now with food just for them”. During our visit, we asked people I they were encouraged to live healthy lives. One person told us, ‘Yes, my staff help’.

Staff were aware of the importance to support people to have healthy meal options. Staff had completed nutrition training and told us that this was useful and supported them to gain more skills and knowledge. Management told us about who they would refer to if they had any concerns around food and nutrition. Management also kept a visual oversight and told us, if they felt a person was showing weight loss, they would speak with staff and check back on health records and weight charts.

People who had moved into the service were provided with a local authority assessment and care plan. The provider also completed their own assessment of people’s needs. The provider also developed care plans and risk assessments following this. We saw people were encouraged to lead healthier lives, this was completed by staff learning about service users and sourcing activity ideas.

People had included in their support plan weekly activities they wished to participate in. We saw people attended college, completed shopping, went to the pub. We saw people’s interests were captured and they were supported to achieve outcomes weekly. For example, one person enjoyed collecting CDs and visiting the local charity shop to exchange CDs for new ones. Staff had supported the person to build up a relationship with the shop owner.

Staff were aware of the planned outcomes for people and understood how these outcomes would improve their lives. Staff were very focused on sourcing activities for people to be involved in. These included activities involving them in the local community. The provider and management team were very engaged in meeting the needs of people and individual interests.

Staff actively researched and spent time with people to find out the activities they wish to be apart of. Care plans and assessments completed for people were used to identify people’s interests and likes and dislikes. Goals in place for people were meaningful to them.

Whilst people were involved in daily choices, we saw consent was not always documented. For example, consent to care. One relative told us,” Yes, they do involve [relative]. They always let them choose if they wish to go out or not, this can be to the pub, out for a meal, see the trains”. Relatives we spoke with told us staff will ask their family member for consent before supporting them to complete tasks. For example, supporting people with personal care.

The provider did not have in place a process to complete mental capacity or best interest meetings. Whilst these were mainly completed by local authority teams, management did not complete mental capacity assessments that can be completed with the provider and appropriate people involved in the person’s care. Staff had completed mental capacity training and told us about people’s mental capacity and what to do if they had any concerns.

The provider told us the local authority completed assessments, and this included mental capacity assessments. This involved all stakeholders involved in the person’s care. However, during this assessment. Management monitored who had DoLS in place and dates of renewal. The manager emailed the local authority regularly to gather updates on applications made. However, care plans did not have relevant information around DoLs recorded in them. At this assessment one service user had conditions on their DoLs. Staff were aware of the conditions and supported the person appropriately to meet the conditions in place. We found people had been issued a tenancy agreement. However, a signed copy was not kept in people’s care plans. Tenancy agreements did not meet the REACH standard guidance, for example, where the property is owned by the care provider and a housing tenancy is issued, this should have stated in the agreement that people have the right to select their care provider and do not have to have Select Lifestyles limited to provide their care and housing. We raised this during the assessment and the registered manager actioned new tenancy agreements to be written and completed.