- Care home
The Willows
Report from 12 March 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
The Willows is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care support to people aged 65 and over. At the time of our assessment 57 people were using the service. The service is a purpose-built premises set over 3 floors. As part of our assessment activity, we undertook on-site visits on 20 and 25 March 2024. This assessment was prompted by information we held about this service and concerns we had received about the quality of care people received and their safety. We assessed 6 quality statements under the Safe key question, 3 quality statements under the Effective key question, 3 quality statements under the Caring key question, 3 quality statements under the Responsive key question and 6 quality statements under the Well-led key question. At the last inspection this location was rated as good. During this assessment we found the provider had failed to maintain the overall rating of good and the rating has decreased to inadequate. We found 6 breaches in regulations of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We found there was a lack of robust measures to mitigate identified risks to people to keep them safe. There were insufficient staffing levels to keep people safe and to meet their needs in a timely manner. The provider’s system to monitor staffing levels was ineffective. Where measures were put in place to restrict people’s movement around the building, the provider could not demonstrate that decisions had been made in-line with the legal framework. Quality assurance and governance systems in place were not always effective or robust. Audits completed did not identify the concerns we found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
Throughout this assessment we spoke with 9 people who lived at The Willows and 16 relatives. We received mixed feedback; many people told us of concerns about their safety and a lack of staff to keep them safe and ensure their needs were met in a timely manner. One person told us, “Well I don’t feel 100% [safe]. I buzzed my buzzer recently at 8:15pm and the staff came in at 10pm. When I asked them why it took so long, they said they hadn’t heard the buzzer. I could have fallen, anything.” A person’s relative commented, “No, definitely not [enough staff]. I know for certainty that [people] wait for staff to answer their call bells.”