The Willows

Updated 28 January 2026

The Willows is a residential care home providing accommodation and nursing care for up to 50 people. The service supports adults with a range of care needs and operates across one purpose‑built building with communal areas and accessible facilities. At the time of our assessment there were 45 people using the service, 30 of those were people living with dementia. We completed this assessment as part of our routine programme and because of the length of time since our last assessment.

During this assessment we found a culture of kindness, safety and professionalism where management led by example. People using the service, their relatives and staff all had a positive experience of the service.

Staff were consistently respectful, warm and attentive, people experienced safe, compassionate and personalised care. Professionals praised the strong relationships between staff, people and their families.

The provider had a proactive approach to safety and there was a well-established learning culture, and reflective supervision systems were in place for reviewing incidents.

Professionals, gave highly positive feedback about the communication and responsiveness of the service, providing a high quality of joint working.

There was a full activities programme in place which was enjoyed by people and their relatives alike. The programme was planned a month in advance and local schools were contacted inviting them to choose what activities they would like the children to be involved in. A Catholic priest attended the service once a month and an altar was prepared in a quiet room to enable mass and prayer to take place for people wanting to take part.

There was a consistent and effective leadership in place, which helped ensure good quality care. The manager led by example, demonstrating compassionate, inclusive and values-based practice. This created a positive culture where staff reported feeling supported, respected and confident to speak up. Many staff described The Willows as the best place they had ever worked, and they felt incredibly proud of the care they delivered. This culture was reflected in people’s experience of the service. They consistently described an atmosphere of warmth, trust and safety with staff demonstrating genuine compassion in their interactions.

Updated 28 January 2026

People told us they received kind, person centred care at The Willows. A relative told us, “The staff are like extended family, I cannot put into words how happy I am in the knowledge that my (relative) is safe and well looked after”.

People and their relatives told us there were enough staff at The Willows, observations during this assessment assured us there were enough staff deployed.

When gathering people’s views, we spoke with people and their relatives and looked at feedback from surveys. The results from the surveys were positive. One person said, “(relative) is so very happy here which is such a relief for our family. (relative) is cared for by absolute angels, so caring, thoughtful and professional”.

Another person told us, “We have fun here, there is always something going on, we do lots of art and we have parties.”