Longstone Service Achieve ‘Good’ Care Inspectorate Feedback

Huge congratulations to our Longstone service on their Level 4 grade following their recent Care Inspectorate Inspection.

The unannounced inspection saw the inspector observe practice and daily life, review documents, and speak to people we support, their family members, staff, and professionals involved with the service.

Since taking over the service in October 2023 Clare Wallace, Service Manager at Longstone has been working hard to identify areas for improvement and drive positive change, saying “We have already put lots of things in place. The work we have started to do had a positive impact on the grading. It’s still a bit scary but six months in and I’m seeing improvements.” As part of the work carried out, staff at the service were involved in Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) training which looked at supporting the learning and development of the staff team to help better meet the needs of people we support and enhance their quality of life. Following on from the training, feedback from the report stated that “people’s outcomes were improving when experiencing stress and distress due to a better informed and developed staff team.” Staff reported that the Positive Behaviour Support training helped develop their understanding and allowed them to better support people.

Findings from the report concluded that “the strengths identified had a significant positive impact” on people we support at the service and that “people experienced warm, compassionate care and support from staff.” At Real Life Options, our staff champion the people we support to live a life full of options and purpose. Praising the staff team at the service, Clare says, “I’m just there to guide people, essentially it is the staff who run the service.”

Well done to the team at Longstone! Keep up the good work.

Click here to read the report.