The Willows Nursing Home

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 65 (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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People and their relatives told us the staff were kind, caring and compassionate and provided care which was respectful and protected people’s privacy and dignity. A person told us, “I am happy here. The staff look after me. They always put the towel over me to protect my dignity in case anyone walks in. They never do though, they always knock first.” A relative told us, “All of the staff are respectful, kind and caring. They all genuinely love [person’s name] and all the residents. I see them hug and kiss [person’s name] and others. They show genuine compassion to the residents. When I cry about [my relative] they cry with me. They are family. I share my [my relative] with them.”. Staff spoke positively about people; they knew people well and could describe how they supported people. Staff were observed showing kindness and compassion. They were patient and explained things to people making sure they understood what was being said.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. The registered manager told us the system in place to develop peoples care plans took account of their individual preferences, including protected characteristics. We saw the care plans identified where people had specific needs and preferences and protected characteristics such as gender and religion. Staff were aware of these preferences and were observed supporting people as individuals. People and their relatives confirmed people received care and support which was individual to them. A person told us, “I feel safe here. They look after me safely. I get the care I want because I tell them what I want and that’s how they do it. I am very well looked after; I go to sleep and wake up when I want to. I like to wake up early.” A relative told us, “The staff are all local and [person’s name] has lived here all their life so there are common threads to talk about.”

The providers systems did not always ensure people had opportunities to make choices about their care and support. People had mixed views about whether they were given choices and had control over their care. Some felt they could make choices, but others told us they felt choice was limited. Some people felt they did not have enough staff present to be able to have a bath or shower as often as they would like. Whilst others told us they were happy with the personal care support they received. We spoke to the registered manager about this, and they told us they would speak with people following the inspection to check on their experience and ensure they received support in line with their individual preferences. People told us they were supported to maintain their independence. A person told us, “They are all very kind and caring to me. They support me to be as independent as I can, like in the shower.” Staff could describe how they supported people to do things for themselves. Care plans indicated the level of support people needed.

The provider did not consistently ensure there were enough staff to respond to people’s needs in the moment. People told us there were times when they had to wait for their care and support needs to be met. Staff were observed having to ask people to wait short periods for their support during the inspection. For example, 1 person had to wait for a short period for staff to come back and be able to support them to the toilet. Staff confirmed people sometimes had to wait. A staff member told us, “It can be a struggle to respond to call bells quickly enough.” We spoke to the registered manager about this, and they immediately increased staffing levels to address this following the inspection site visit. We will check effective staffing levels have been maintained at our next inspection.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff told us they felt well supported by the management team. They described being able to seek support from the registered manager and others if they needed it. A staff member told us, “Any concerns we have we can speak directly to the registered manager and the nurses work well with us and offer support.” The registered manager told us they had systems in place to consider staff wellbeing. They had regular check in’s with staff and discussed staff wellbeing in supervisions. The registered manager gave the example of working with staff to ensure they could take time to celebrate religious festivals which were important to them and change working patterns to support individual circumstances. Staff confirmed the registered managers’ door was always open to them.