Walmer Care Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. At our last assessment we rated this key question as good. At this assessment the rating has remained as good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 79 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

The provider always planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation. They worked to develop evidence-based outstanding practice and standards. They sustained this practice over time. A staff member told us, “Our manager completed dementia care matters accreditation which she embedded throughout, and we have also been accredited with Gold Standard Framework (GSF) for the last 6 years, both have the aim of ensuring that our residents live well and die well in their home.”

The GSF is a process where the service is assessed against the best practice guidance in end-of-life care. During the inspection the registered manager and deputy manager received confirmation they had achieved platinum status following re-accreditation in the GSF. Staff were delighted with the achievement because they passionately championed supporting people to live and die well in the last years of their life. A staff member told us, “We have recently received platinum status…the whole team are really proud. Providing dignity and person-centred care is really important to us.” The staff member shared their experience of providing end of life care stating, “It was a very difficult time, but we were proud to be able to care for [person] right through to the end and make sure [person] was treated with dignity throughout. The whole process made me immensely proud of our team and myself, and the platinum status reflects the hard work and dedication we put in day in, day out.”

The service had also recently won an award at The Palliative End of Life Care Awards 2026 because of staff’s exceptional commitment to delivering high-quality care, with people at the heart of the way the service is run and the support they receive wherever people are in their care journey. A relative told us they were particularly moved by the way the service celebrated people’s lives after they passed away, giving those who knew them including people, relatives and staff opportunity to pause and reflect. They said, “They value individual residents, they see people with a past and future. You can see the home believe in living and dying well.”

A staff member told us, “We are encouraged to further our education so we can be the best for the people we take care of and introduce new ideas to make Walmer Care Centre more welcoming and the transition more enjoyable for the people who live here.” The registered manager had invested in improving support for people living with Dementia by attending training and embedding their learning into the way the service was run and increasing staff knowledge and skills.

The registered manager told us the service adopted a ‘home from home’ model of care. Throughout the service there were pictures of staff and residents as children and on their wedding days. The pictures provided talking points for people living at the service and brought staff and people together in a homely way. A relative fed back to the service, “I am delighted with it, I am just amazed at how home like it is and feels.”

To further support this model of care and reduce barriers, staff did not wear uniforms and instead wore bright, colourful tops during the day and wore pyjamas at night. A staff member said, “Here it is person-centred care, we are coming into these people’s homes it is why we don’t have the uniform anymore.” A relative comment read, ‘I think it’s wonderful that you don’t wear uniforms at night and wear pyjamas instead, this must help so much with orientation and helping people realise its night.’ Staff confirmed people living at the service were more orientated and responded better when staff prompted people to go to bed since they started wearing pyjamas. For 1 person the change to stop uniforms had resulted in reduced incidents of distress and agitation at night when staff encouraged people to rest. A staff member said, “The home has a lovely family feel, which is something that makes it such a special place to work… I feel very fortunate to be part of a team that puts people first and strives to make a genuine difference to the lives of those in our care."

We did not look at How staff, teams and services work together during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at Supporting people to live healthier lives during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.