Willowdene Care Home

Updated 4 December 2020

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 12 November 2020 and was announced.

Updated 4 December 2020

About the service

Willowdene Care Home provides residential and nursing care for up to 48 people aged 65 and over. This included people living with a dementia. At the time of the inspection 44 people were using the service. Care is provided in three different units, covering residential care, nursing care and dementia care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were happy with the care which they received. Improvements had been made to the way medicines were managed. Staff responded well when people’s needs changed. Lessons were learned when needed. Staffing levels were good and kept people safe.

Staff were supported to carry out their roles. They had opportunities to participate in learning and development. People were supported with their nutritional needs. Good links with health professionals supported people to receive timely care. The environment was well maintained. Staff had a good understand of how to support people to make decisions about their care.

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

Staff knew people very well and were able to provide people with the best care. This supported people to remain as independent as they could be. Staff were responsive when people needed additional support; this approach was dignified. People were supported to maintain relationships with those important for them.

Staff were highly skilled at providing people with individualised care. Care was flexible to fit in with people’s wishes. The quality of care records supported a consistent delivery of care. The home received regular compliments about the good care people received. Complaints had been made and dealt with appropriately.

Quality assurance measures had supported the home to make continual improvements. Feedback and critical analysis were central to this. Strong leadership supported the staff team to work very well together to ensure people received good care which led to good outcomes for people.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 20 June 2018) and there were two breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

There was also an inspection on 14 March 2019 however, the report following that inspection was withdrawn as there was an issue with some of the information that we gathered.

Why we inspected

This is a planned re-inspection because of the issue highlighted above.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.