16 August 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
Willowmead Care Home is a residential care home providing the regulated activity of personal care to up to 60 people. The service provides support to older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 49 people using the service within 2 houses [Hatfield House and Wickham House].
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support:
Staff did not do everything they could to avoid restraining people. There was a lack of evidence to demonstrate how the provider learned from those incidents and how they might be avoided or reduced in the future.
People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms.
Staff supported people to take part in activities.
Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs.
Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that achieved the best possible health outcome. We have made a recommendation about medicines being stored securely and PRN protocols being developed and implemented.
Right Care:
People received care that was kind. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs.
The service had enough staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe, but improvements were required to ensure the skill mix of staff was appropriate and the use of agency staff reduced. We have made a recommendation about this, staff training and induction.
Risks people might face were mostly assessed and recorded.
Right Culture:
Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to their needs.
Staff respected people’s choices and wherever possible, accommodated their wishes.
Staff felt respected and supported by the manager and deputy manager.
The service apologised to people, and those important to them, when things went wrong.
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 October 2022]. The service remains rated Requires Improvement following this inspection. This service has now been rated Requires Improvement for the last 2 consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about safeguarding and risk. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found that improvements were required for safeguarding, risk and to the provider’s quality assurance arrangements.
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 see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation risk management, safeguarding and quality assurance at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.