21 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Willow Tree Lodge is a residential care home providing accommodation, personal and nursing care to up to 34 people. The service provides support to older people, some whom live with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 27 people using the service. Care is provided in one adapted building over three floors.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives were positive about the service and the support they received from staff. One person said, “I am happy here. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.” A relative said, “I am happy with the care home. They are all friendly and attentive.”
Staff knew how to protect people from the risk of abuse. If concerns arose, they were reported and investigated appropriately. Action was taken following incidents and lessons were learnt to reduce the risk of re-occurrence. There were risk assessments in place to guide staff on how to support people to remain safe. Staff were aware of the risks to people and were supporting people safely. There were sufficient staff to support people and people told us they got support when they needed it. Medicines were managed safely to ensure people received them as prescribed. People were kept safe from the risk of the transfer of infection, such as the risk from COVID.
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. Staff followed best interest processes where people needed this support for decisions. Where people could make choices, people told us staff supported this.
The service had continued to improve since the last inspection and previous improvements had been imbedded. Regular checks were undertaken on the quality of the service. Where the registered manager had identified actions were needed, these had been undertaken or were in progress. The registered manager understood the importance of being open and transparent should incidents occur. Staff were kind to people and were supported by the registered manager who worked alongside them. There were systems in place to ensure people, their relatives and staff could provide feedback about their care. People told us they were listened to.
The service had complied with legal obligations such as displaying their rating and notifying CQC of important events. The service had worked in partnership with other health and social care providers to improve outcomes for people and learn best practice.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (Published 02 December 2019). Since the last inspection the service has changed their name from High Meadow Nursing Home to Willow Tree Lodge. There were no breaches of regulation found at the last inspection.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question.
We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Willow Tree Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.