Westwood Lodge Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment this key question has remained at requires improvement. This meant the management and leadership was inconsistent. Leaders and the culture they created did not always support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care. The provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to good governance.

This service scored 54 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The new management team had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities. However, this was not always the case until recently when the new management team were appointed. This shared direction and culture needed to be sustained, further developed and embedded. People had not been involved in residents’ meetings or changes within the service. The provider had recently appointed a ‘resident representative’ to improve this.

The new management team had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. This had not always been the case and poor management skills had led to many of the issues we had found during this assessment. One person said, “I would not recommend this place to anyone, but things have been changing in the last few weeks, so I might change my mind, but not yet.”

The new management team fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Overall people and staff felt confident to raise concerns with the new management team and these would be listened to and acted upon. Staff felt their views and suggestions were now taken on board.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They work towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them. The provider and new management team valued diversity and ensured they followed best practices guidance.

The provider had not had clear systems of accountability and good governance. They did not act on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, or share this securely with others when appropriate. There was a range of checks and audits in place, but these had not always identified or addressed the issues we had found, including those in connection with medicines, storage conditions, person centred care, infection control or recruitment procedures. There was no registered manager in place at the time of the assessment and had not been for over 190 days. The new management team had produced a detailed action plan and were working on improving the service, but much more work was required to embed changes and monitor these for continued compliance.

The new management team clearly understood and carried out their duty to collaborate and work in partnership for the benefit of people. This had not always been the case until recently with the appointment of new management staff. Healthcare professionals we spoke with said the previous management team had not always engaged well with them. One healthcare professional said, “I visited the service recently and met the new manager. They seem to be interested in what is happening and want to make the service better for everyone. Let’s hope they stay as there has been too many changes.” Care records were not always up to date, accurate or sufficiently detailed. Therefore, when information about people needed to be shared between services there was no assurance of the quality or accuracy of information shared.

The new management team focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. However, this had not always been the case until recently. Staff had not always been actively encouraged to work with people in ways which aimed to improve outcomes for them and allow each individual to experience a good quality of life. The provider was planning to implement a new electronic recording system and had employed a support person to help do this in the coming weeks.