The Willows

Updated 8 January 2025

Date of Assessment: 14 to 31 January 2025. We visited the service 14 and 16 January 2025. The service is a residential care home for up to 66 older people and people living with dementia. At this assessment there were 40 people using the service. At our last assessment, the service was rated inadequate and we found multiple breaches of regulations relating to consent, safeguarding, governance, staffing, person centred care and safe care and treatment. At this assessment, the provider was no longer in breach relating to safeguarding, staffing and consent. However, we found repeated breaches of regulation relating to person centred care, safe care and treatment and governance.

The governance systems in place had not identified and addressed the widespread concerns found. There was a lack of consistent management to ensure it was stable and improvements were made, sustained and embedded in practice.

People were not consistently receiving person-centred care that met their needs and kept them safe from avoidable harm. Care records and risk assessments were contradictory and not up to date to ensure staff received guidance to keep people safe and meet their needs. People were not always receiving the support they required to reduce the risks of pressure ulcers. The shortfalls identified at this assessment did not demonstrate people were receiving a caring service at all times.

In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.

This service remains in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

Updated 8 January 2025

During our visits, we spoke with 8 people who used the service and 2 relatives. Following our visits, we spoke with 2 relatives on the telephone and received electronic feedback from 9 relatives. We received mixed views about the service provided. The majority of people told us they were treated with kindness by staff and 2 people told us that some staff were better than others, when meeting their needs with kindness and compassion. Relatives said they felt the staff were caring, with 2 raising that temporary staff did not know people as well as the permanent staff.

Some people told us they were bored. A person said since the activity staff member left there had not been much to keep them occupied. There were visiting entertainers but, “Trouble with activities we don’t get told when they are going to turn up so you don’t get to see them. No warning.” We received mixed views from relatives, with some saying there had been a deterioration in the provision of activities recently. None told us about any 1 to 1 social activity when their family members declined to attend group activity.

Some people told us they were not always happy with the food offered, one person said there was one good meal a week. Relatives told us they felt there were efforts being made to improve the quality of food and improvements were being made.

A person told us how they locked their bedroom door to prevent other people from entering, and sometimes they got a disturbed sleep.

People and relatives told us improvements had been made in the staffing levels.

We received mixed views from relatives about levels of consultation about the care their family members received. We were told they had been consulted at the start of the care provision but this was not always ongoing.

Relatives told us they were able to visit their family members when they chose to.