Archived: The Lantern Community

The Lantern Community provides personal care to 31 people with learning disabilities. The service was spread across a large area of land which had 10 houses, therapeutic workshops such as wood work, pottery, weaving and art. There was also an onsite bakery, café and shop where people who used the service worked in. The houses varied in size from two to eight people living in shared supported living environments. The accommodation ranges from a two hundred year old cottage to modern houses.

The Lantern Community embedded holistic Camphill values and practices which were to work and create communities in which people with additional needs can live, learn, and work with others in healthy social relationships based on mutual care and respect. A person told us, “I really like the Camphill ethos and festivals”.

The manager had ensured that the service was meeting its regulatory requirements and there were systems and processes in place to ensure the smooth running of the community.

Goal sheets and care and support plans were not made accessible for people in ways that other information was. For example, there were a number of policies and information documents made available in pictorial easy read formats whereas goals and care and support plans were not. This meant that some people may not fully understand their goals and plans. The registered manager told us they will review this and make them more accessible for people.

We reviewed the services quality audits which covered areas such as incident/accident, infection control, health and safety, medication and stakeholder feedback. Quality monitoring systems used covered key areas, identified areas of improvement and recorded actions to be taken. We found that the systems used were dated and had not been reviewed regularly. The registered manager acknowledged this and said that this was an area they were looking at developing with the new proposed management structure.

Whilst reviewing care files we noted that records in current files dated back to 2010. This made files very lengthy and could cause confusion to new staff on induction about what people’s current goals and care and support needs were. We discussed this with the registered manager who said that old records will be archived and files will only contain the most recent up to date information.

There were detailed care and support plans in place based on individual preferences, likes dislikes and people’s needs. Goals were set by people who received weekly support meetings with staff which ensured they met their needs and preferences. The registered manager had a “hands on” approach which meant they were in frequent contact with people, their families and health and social care professionals.

There were enough staff in place to meet peoples care and support needs who had received appropriate pre-employment checks prior to them starting work at The Lantern Community.

Weekly and monthly medication checks were carried out which ensured that medicines were stored and recorded safely. Only staff who had received appropriate medicines training were able to administer medicines. We noted that medicines were dispensed into small glass dispensing pots. This posed a small risk to people if they were dropped and smashed. We discussed this with the registered manager who told us that these would be replaced with disposable dispensing pots.

People had access to healthcare when they needed it. The manager told us they had developed good communication with a range of health and social care professionals and contacted them directly when required. People’s care records demonstrated contact with a variety of health and social care professionals.

People were supported to maintain contact with people who were important to them and there were no restrictions on visiting times. People had different interests and liked to spend the day in ways which suited them. Each person had their own timetable which had been put together with people and reflected their preference with activities such as wood work, art, pottery or work in the bakery or café.

There were good relationships between the management and the care workers who worked closely together. The management team provided formal supervision as well as day to day supervision. All new staff had completed or were working towards completing the care certificate.

Staff received appropriate training to ensure they had the right skills to support people to live at The Lantern Community.

People, relatives, staff and professionals we spoke to told us they felt the service was well led and that the registered manager was very approachable and open to suggestion and learning. Regular quality checks took place. These ensured that The Lantern Community’s practices and delivery of care and support was monitored and improvements made as and when appropriate.

The service had made statutory notifications to us as required. A notification is the action that a provider is legally bound to take to tell us about any changes to their regulated services or incidents that have taken place in them.