The Willows Care Home

Updated 23 January 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of a CQC Operations manager.

Service and service type

The Willows is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. The Willows is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who used the service and 1 visiting health professional about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 2 members of staff and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people's care plans, a range of medicine administration records (MAR) and 3 staff recruitment files. We viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service including audit systems. We spent time observing the care that people received within the home.

Updated 23 January 2024

The Willows Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 28 older people, some of whom were living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 23 people using the service.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse and action was taken to mitigate the risk of harm to people following incidents and accidents. Systems were in place supported continuous learning. People’s risk assessments were followed to keep people safe.

Medication was stored and administered safely and the environment was clean and hygienic. There were sufficient numbers of suitably trained staff who had been employed using safe recruitment processes.

Quality monitoring systems in place were effective in ensuring the home was well maintained, although we found some areas of minor concern that the audits had not identified. Immediate action was taken to implement the improvements.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

The last rating for this service was Good and the report published on 19 March 2018.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.