Sarah Dew, Shared Lives Support Officer – Shared Lives – Lancashire County Council
- I think we are rated Outstanding because we are such a person-centred service.
- We complete thorough assessments to make sure our matching process is the best it can possibly be, and we make sure people are happy in the households that they are in.
- We help people engage in the local community be promoting their independence and choice. We like people to have a full and active life and, if needed, a structured week. So, we ask our carers to explore what’s out there I the community for people to be involved in to make friendships and networks, and we check that carers are supporting people with these choices as well.
Leanne Brotherton, Shared Lives Carer – Shared Lives – Lancashire County Council
- Being a Shared Lives Carer, I like to promote people with their goals so we sit down and ask them what they would like to do? For example, Marcus who lives with me wanted to have a job in a charity shop and he has got to a stage now where he is starting to work behind the till. That was achieved by him going to college, learning about money, and he started to put that into his workplace. So that was his goal that he wanted to achieve.
Marcus Dawkins
- I work in a charity shop, St Catherine’s Hospice, on a Wednesday and a Friday, 10am to 4pm. I like working because it gives you, like, independence to live by yourself and show you what strategies to use.
Sara-Jane Clapson MBA, Head of Outstanding, Regional Director – Bupa UK
- Person-centred care for me is a term that is banded around a lot but not that many people know what that personally means. For me, it means that when somebody comes into a home it doesn’t mean that their life has to end. It’s just a new chapter for them. So, just because they’ve got complex nursing needs doesn’t mean we can’t introduce new things into their lives.
Antonia Thompson, Activities Coordinator – Eglantine Villa
- I think one of the main things that we do is that we encourage. We learn to know what each resident enjoys, doesn’t enjoy, and wants to actually do. If we can make sure that they are enjoying themselves whilst they are here and doing things that they would do on the outside, we are going to encourage them to do that. Whatever makes them happy.
Emily Voce, Activities Coordinator – Eglantine Villa
- Our activities here are person-centred activities. So something that we are quite passionate about here is trying to grant any wishes that our residents would like to do towards the end of their lives.
Antonia Thompson, Activities Coordinator – Eglantine Villa
- We have a resident here who was actually a boxer in the army, and he used to box for England. I decided I was going to set him up and take him to an actual fight night.
- He got a shout-out by the Referee, the boxers came to shake his hand, he got to tell everybody about what he used to do and how different it is now to what is was when he was in the army. And it was such a pleasure to be able to let someone to go back to what they loved doing.
Emily Voce, Activities Coordinator – Eglantine Villa
- We don’t want our residents to forget those parts of their lives that aren’t as prominent anymore.
Katie Brennan, Registered Branch Manager – Carefound Homecare
- I think Responsive to Carefound means first of all ensuring that we are going to give the care we say we are going to give and the care that’s required … but also acting on any changes or any circumstances that might happen.
- When the CQC came in to do our inspection, I think they saw how involved we are with the care and how person-centred it is as well. And we also got good feedback from the clients saying the difference we have made to their lives. We involve them in every step of the process.
- When we initially go out to assess people it is always the client that is in the front of our minds. So we will sit down with them and we will have a chat. We don’t always go into questions about what they need and what they don’t need. We will get to know them a little bit and then the information will come out to us and then we will put the care plan together.
- If they don’t need a certain area of care at that moment in time, we can work with them to provide that I the future. It just makes them feel in control of their care.
Wendy Donkin, Shared Lives Carer – Shared Lives – Lancashire County Council
- I think for another care organisation to be outstanding, it’s really important to put the person first in the centre of it all to make sure a person’s identity and who they are is always in place. Give them the opportunity to meet other people and experience new brighter things.
Watch the film here: