Exploring staff culture in community-based services for people with IDD in England and the relationship with measures of quality of life and quality of support

Introduction: Staff culture has been hypothesised to influence thequality of support people receive and the outcomes they experience andthere is a growing body of research around staff culture in group homes,primarily in Australia. This paper explores staff culture in supported ac-commodation services as part of an annual quality evaluation in one UKsupport provider.Methods: Staff in 26 services received the Group Home CultureScale (GHCS) as part of a wider staff questionnaire exploringcharacteristics, knowledge, attitudes and experiences. Observationalmeasures of quality of life, quality of support, and practice leadershipwere also available.Results: 59 staff across 19 services returned the questionnaire.Preliminary analysis indicates issues of misalignment between staff andmanagers views and although positive regard for residents was high, staffreported slightly lower scores on working practices related to choice andcontrol. There was consistency with other staff rated measures such as thepractice leadership index. Relationships between staff ratings of cultureand the quality of support will also be explored.Implications: Although a relatively small scale study, this is the firstuse of the GHCS in the UK and implications for the future use of themeasure and for understanding the relatoinship between staff culture andquality of support will be discussed.