The Meadows: A journey to exceptional support

Everyone has a right to exceptional care and support. At Lifeways, our purpose is to improve lives so we make sure that quality and safety comes first in everything we do. It’s a commitment that can be measured by the positive outcomes of the people we support. Our highly skilled and dedicated Quality, Health and Safety Team share the common goal of making our services the best they can be by focusing on continual improvement and best practice. They proactively support our colleagues so they can work with the people we support, their families and professionals to achieve the best possible outcomes for each individual.

In 2018, The Meadows, Lifeways’ residential service in Leyland, Lancashire was awarded a ‘Good’ CQC rating overall – with potential to move to an ‘Outstanding’ rating.  The report highlighted that residents at The Meadow felt well supported to gain greater independence, felt included in planning and agreeing to the care and support they received and were supported to follow a range of activities that they enjoyed in the home and community.

With a focus on providing the best possible care provision for the people we support, The Meadows,supported by the Quality Team is now embarking on a journey from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’. We are committed to taking the next steps and providing extraordinary support.

Jodie Allen-Cawley, Group Lead Quality Manager commented, “This isn’t something we can achieve overnight, it will take a lot of dedication, determination and collaboration with the people we support to really understand how and what we, as an organisation, can do to ensure they are receiving the best possible support they individually need. We want to make sure they remain at the heart of every decision we make so that they get the best outcomes.”

Communication is the key ingredient to outstanding care and support; throughout this journey the people we support have been encouraged to come up with ideas of how they feel we can better support them and we will work together to make those ideas, wishes and choices a reality. We believe every person we support has an important contribution to make in improving the way we provide care and support.

To ensure they were capturing everyone’s voice and lived experiences, the residents at The Meadows appointed a Residents Forum Representative, Johnathan; who has lived at The Meadows for over 2 years and played an active role in working with the staff team to further improve the support provided.

Johnathan, shared, “At the moment, The Meadows’ CQC rating is ‘Good’, I have signed up to work with the Lifeways staff team to increase the rating to ‘Outstanding’. My main responsibility as the resident’s forum representative is to make sure everyone has a voice, and their voice is heard. I have regular talks with all the residents here and together we have already come up with some ideas on how to improve the service, such as creating a sensory garden to provide a safe and stimulating environment for people to share.”

Working collaboratively, residents and our colleagues used the person-centred thinking tool; PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope) as the basis for their workshop to develop ideas of what outstanding support meant to each of them individually. PATH is a participatory creative planning tool which places people at the centre, enabling participants to develop a vision and a means to accomplish it via the graphic facilitation of ideas. The idea is to then work backwards to consider the steps required in order to achieve this future.

Following the PATH workshops, the team at The Meadows has now finalised their ‘Good to Outstanding’ action plan and identified champions and their roles and responsibilities. The team has also started to closely monitor the quality of support and culture through internal audits and working towards the people we support becoming quality checkers.

Ahead of next year’s inspection, working closely with the people we support on their journey to outstanding care and support, The Meadows has already started to implement some new initiatives.

Johnathan added, “I’m really excited by this way of working.  An idea shared could lead to a better life for us all.”

This is a really exciting time for the people that live at The Meadows and we look forward to following their journey.