Livewell Southwest CIC is celebrating as inspectors from the healthcare watchdog Care Quality Commission (CQC) have awarded it a rating of Good overall, with all of its core services now either Good or Outstanding overall.
That makes it among the best performing community health and mental health providers in the South West.
The Plymouth social enterprise – one of the city’s largest employers – is inspected annually by the regulator, just like all NHS trusts, and rated on how it is performing in key areas. A team of 17 inspectors visited five core services in September, and in October, management came under scrutiny to establish whether Livewell Southwest (LSW) is well-led.
In each case, the inspectors analyse whether each area is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Inspectors visited mental health services and two community health services:
- community health inpatient services
- community end of life care
- child and adolescent mental health wards
- wards for older people with mental health problems
- community based mental health services for adults of working age.
In their report, published today (January 3, 2020), inspectors confirm Livewell has remained Good overall for the second year and highlighted many areas for praise.
These include:
- “There was a positive, open and honest culture throughout the organisation. Staff at all levels were proud to work there and morale among staff was very good.”
- “Leaders and staff across the organisation put patients at the centre of everything they did.”
- “Staff treated all patients with compassion, respect and kindness. The privacy and dignity of patients was maintained at all times. Patients were supported by staff to understand and manage their care and treatment.”
- “Staff actively involved families and carers of patients in their care appropriately.”
- “Staff of all disciplines worked well together as a team to the benefit of patients. Staff supported each other to ensure patients had no gaps in their care.
- “Livewell Southwest had strong leadership who had the appropriate range of skills, knowledge and experience to deliver community health and mental health services.”
Dr Adam Morris, chief executive of LSW, said: “This is a tremendous achievement and well-deserved recognition of the commitment and expertise of everyone working at Livewell. Every day I am genuinely impressed by the determination of our staff to deliver the best care and support they can, and it is clear from the report that the inspectors recognised that commitment too.
“Of course there are always opportunities for improvement and 2020 will see us working ever more closely with our partners in primary and acute care as well as the local authority and voluntary and charity sectors to build on our good work to date. We’ll be sharing our expertise and good practice, and learning from others, as we work together to transform services to make it easier for people to get the help and support they need at the right time, in the right place for them.”
Geoff Baines, Director of Quality and Safety, and Livewell’s registered CQC manager, said: “This is a tremendous achievement and well-deserved recognition of the commitment and expertise of everyone working at Livewell.
“Their hard work and determination to continually improve our services are truly inspiring. I’m delighted that the inspectors who visited us recognised the great work that is being done every day by teams and individuals.”
The full report is available here.
