Look Ahead Care And Support Employee Reviews for Manager

I worked for LACS for a total of 8 years and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I started as a support worker, then specialist, then team leader and then manager in a variety of different services across London. I had some fantastic colleagues and some staff who went over and beyond, who really did work exceptionally hard, while I inherited some poor staff. A big issue is that you end up stuck with poor performers because the HR process was so difficult to get rid of them.

Pros

‘Some’ wonderful staff

Cons

Working 60+ hours due to complexes of service.

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Great organisation, with opportunity for movement and growth internally.

Manager (Former Employee) - Anerley - 26 August 2021

Lots of available in and external. Opportunity for growth and development. 1-1 supervision regually. Opportunity for movement within the organisation.

Pros

Opportunity to move up the ladder with internal movement

Cons

Sometimes bad management collusion.

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Insights into Look Ahead Care And Support

Based on 19 survey responses

Areas for improvement

Trust in colleagues
Sense of belonging
Fair pay for job

Team and clients are what makes it count

Manager (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 28 January 2021

Staff work really hard- sadly it's not reflect in their salary.Burn out and turnover is extremely high in this organization.The company very much runs like a business, and the people at the top don't seem to understand the challenges most services face- they try to make changes but without understanding the support workers roles and the needs of clients- their changes are half-hearted, impulsive temporary attempts to fix. A real shame, the organization seemed to start to only acknowledge a tiny bit staff's work on the front line when the pandemic started. The organization could learn a lot from it's competitors including managing COVID-19 in services. Heavy reliance based on managers of services to know what to do during the pandemic.

Pros

the team and the clients we support

Cons

Lack of staff development and essential training opportunities for their roles

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Fix up or Go home Look Ahead

Manager (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 15 July 2019

Anything I have learnt, I have learnt myself and from my contract manager. There is no significant training available for support workers or managers around important front line experiences such as ; de-escalation, finances, managing teams, conflict resolution, not even around drug and alcohol awareness, extremely concerning I could go on. The same trainings are regurgitated every year. This company lacks vision, creativity, understanding, compassion and innovation. Look Ahead (well the Seniors sitting in HQ) doesn't understand or doesn't seem to actually care about the impact staff turnover has on the overall running of services, and most importantly, the impact this has on our clients. This issue has been going on for years, no active interest from seniors at Head Office who can push to make something happen. Clearly don't care due to their lovely salaries. Support workers roughly spend one year and a half, in services, and often recognize the grass is greener else where and leave where there are much more development opportunities, higher salaries and where there is more investment in staff, who can blame them, I can't. There is never any support from HQ around serious incidents in services, they don't even seem to have an independent team who investigate matters arising in services, let alone a support team, unbelievable, considering how big the organization is. Myself and the staff are directly involved in the production line of Look Ahead Care and support and this is a business need and something that should be carefully considered. It gets tiring -

Pros

My staff and clients

Cons

Long Hours, clueless Head Office, gaps in training provision

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Awful Experience at Manager Level

Manager (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 8 March 2017

I learnt very quickly that the way to the top in this company is to be compliant and agree with the SMT. However, this would involve leaving your morals and convictions at home. What incensed me the most and ultimately my reason for leaving was the decision to end the customer life skills budget which enabled independence and ownership of the services. How a company that made so much surplus from local authority grant funding could bank the profits and leave customers trapped in dependence was beyond me. But then it soon became clear that the rental for the head offices in Westminster and the executive bonuses were due.

Pros

Great Support Workers

Cons

Clueless Leadership compounded by poor decisions

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Ethically & morally bankrupt leadership

Manager (Current Employee) - Westminster, Greater London - 15 December 2016

Front line staff desperatly trying to do their best despite senior managers cutting service user budgets whilst at the same time awarding themselves executive bonuses. If you smile and keep quiet you will go a long way in this company. Blame culture. Plush head office in Westminster where senior managers have separated themselves from the lower classes. All this whilst front line staff work in appaling offices with very poor facilities such as outdated IT eqpt. Shocking central services, particularly HR with a 100% staff turnover. Consistent restructures which last 6 months maximum. Absolutely clueless Directors who are out of touch with the realities of staff workload hence massive front line staff turnover. It really is awful, this list could continue. Senior team Moto is 'smile and wave boys, smile and wave'. Madagascar.