Willows Care Home is rated as Inadequate by CQC

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Willows Care Home in Chester, that it must make improvements or face further enforcement action.

During an unannounced inspection in October 2014, inspectors found that the home was failing to provide care which was safe, effective or well led. A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all adult social care services are being given a rating to help people choose care. Overall Willows Care Home has been rated as Inadequate.

CQC has issued the provider with a warning notice setting a deadline for improvements in relation to the assessing and monitoring of service quality and consent to care and treatment.

The report identifies a number of areas in which improvements are required:

• Inspectors found evidence of safeguarding incidents having occurred at the home that had not been notified to CQC as required by law.
• Staff were not always provided with sufficient guidance on how to administer medication prescribed to be taken “as required”. 
• Inspectors found that people living at the home were having their movements restricted; for example bedroom doors were locked when people were not inside their rooms so people were unable to have free access to their private accommodation.
• Inspectors found that care plans for people at risk of pressure ulcers were not always up to date.
• Not all staff had received training in key areas such as first aid, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, medication and challenging behaviour.
• The home did not effectively monitor the quality of service that people received.

Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North said:

“We found that the care provided at Willows Care Home fell a long way short of what we expect services to provide. We have told them they must take action to resolve the issues we identified.

“While we did see some caring interactions between staff and people living in the home, and that in some ways people were well supported, the safety issues we identified needed urgent attention.

“We have made it clear that we will return to the home to check that the necessary improvements have been made.  If not - we will take further action to make sure that people living there receive care which is safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.”

Ends

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