Archived: Willowfields

Updated 20 December 2016

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Our inspection took place on 8 and 9 November 2016 and was unannounced and was carried out by one inspector.

We asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. Due to technical problems a PIR was not available and we took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We sent out 31 questionnaires to people and 12 were returned, 31 to relatives and three were retuned, 20 to care staff and three were returned and four to professionals and none were returned. We reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law.

We requested information about the service from the Local Authority. They have responsibility for funding and monitoring the quality of the service. They did not share any information with us.

We visited the provider’s main office location. We spoke with four people who used the service, two relatives, three members of the care staff and the registered manager. We reviewed five care records for people that used the service, reviewed the records for three members of the care staff and records related to the management and quality of the service.

Updated 20 December 2016

The inspection took place on 8 and 9 November 2016 and was unannounced. At our last inspection on the 4 November 2015 the provider was rated overall as Requires Improvement. We found that improvement were required in the Safe, Effective and Well led questions. We found from this inspection that improvements had been made.

Willowfields is registered to provide personal care services to older adults in their own homes as part of an extra care scheme. On the day of the inspection, 34 people were receiving support. There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act (2008) and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Care staff knew what actions to take where people were at risk of harm and people felt safe. Medicines were managed as they were prescribed and people were able to get pain relief as needed.

Care staff were able to get support as needed and they had the appropriate skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs. People were only supported with their consent and care staff showed a good understanding of the mental capacity act and its potential impact upon people’s human rights where they lacked capacity.

People were involved in sharing their views as part of the assessment process and how they were supported by care staff. People’s views were also gathered as part of the review process and any decisions made about their support involved them. People were encouraged to be as independent as they could and their privacy and dignity was respected.

The provider had a complaints process to enable people to share any concerns they had about the service they received.

The appropriate systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service by way of regular checks and audits.

The provider carried out surveys so people could share their views on the service and meet with the registered manager on a regular basis.