At Lifeways, people come first

This blog post is written by Chris Woodhead, Lifeways' Chief Commercial Officer

Social care will always be about great people delivering great support.  That’s why we invest so much in finding, recruiting, training and retaining people with the right values, and giving them the systems and technology they need to perform.  We want to give people who care a platform to help others lead their very best lives. 

Meeting new colleagues on our induction programme is one of the parts of my job that I enjoy the most: I love to learn where people have come from, what brings them to Lifeways and what their aspirations are.

The vast majority of people in this sector – and here at Lifeways – respond brilliantly to this, dedicating their skills and energy to delivering creative, active support. 

In doing this, the safety, wellbeing and dignity of the people we support are, and always will be, our highest priorities.  We know how vital trust is and we work hard to earn and keep it, every day. 

So, when concerns are raised about the care we provide we take them extremely seriously and apologise when we get things wrong.  We are proud of what we do - but we also know that mistakes can be made and, if our support falls below our high expectations, we take action to put it right. 

Lifeways has been in the media recently, where some examples of support that we have not got right have been filmed on CCTV.  While we can’t comment on these individual cases due to data protection laws – and we know that our organisation has been mis-represented - what we can say is this: every time an allegation is made to us, we investigate immediately, thoroughly and take appropriate action.

We also proactively report any concerns raised about our services to regulators and commissioners, and work with families and the people we support to restore quality and trust.   

Listening, learning, acting 

In social care, as long as people are being supported by people, behind their own front doors, in their own homes as things should be – not in locked, institutional settings – there is a risk that things can go wrong.  Like any people-first service.

This is why we actively welcome scrutiny: because it makes us stronger and helps us improve. 

So, I’m pleased to welcome the launch of our new Family Advisory Panel. This group of 13 family members of people we support will independently review our services and share their recommendations directly with our Senior Leadership Team. 

It’s a way that families can hold Lifeways to account.  The Panel is chaired by a family member and built on honesty, independence, and a shared goal of continuously improving care. 

The Family Advisory Panel joins other powerful voices that already shape the way we work, such as our 200 independent quality checkers (people we support who assess and advise on our services), and the Lifeways Executive Advisory Panel (LEAP), which gives people we support a direct line to our Executive Team to improve services. 

We also hold regular conversations with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and local authorities, and we’ve actively lobbied for more CQC inspections - because transparency drives accountability. 

 There’s nothing to hide from in social care.  When an organisation has the humility to accept that things can go wrong but the will to get things right, scrutiny becomes a catalyst for that improvement. 

Change that matters 

Since 2022, our new Executive Team has been leading a £10 million transformation programme to modernise our systems, invest in our buildings, improve our technology, and reshape how we work through learning and development.  It’s an investment we are proud to be able to make.  Our aim has been simple: to attract the best people, train them well, pay them as well as our funding allows and give them tools that make it easy to do the right thing. 

With more than 10,000 staff delivering 13 million care hours to 4,000 people across 1,500 services, we’re proud of the positive impact our teams make every day.  

Satisfaction with our services is high, according to our latest satisfaction survey, but we will always strive to improve.  We’re a listening and learning organisation. We know that if something goes wrong, we must act fast and with integrity. That’s our promise to the people we support and their families.  

Silence is not an option 

Everyone at Lifeways and everyone connected to us plays a role in helping us do better.  No matter how much we invest in systems and technology, the most valuable assets we have are the eyes, ears and values of our brilliant team and the partners who work with us: families, commissioners, repairs contractors, visiting professionals... anyone who connects with any of our support. 

If something doesn’t feel right, we want to know. That’s why we have a robust whistleblowing policy and, in the coming weeks, we’ll be highlighting why it’s so important to speak up - because under-reporting is the enemy of safety. 

If you ever have a concern, big or small, about care delivered by Lifeways, please contact our Raising Concerns helpline on 0800 090 2478 or email qualityalerts@lifeways.co.uk.  

We’re listening and ready to act.