The Rowans Care Home

Updated 22 January 2025

The Rowans is registered to provide accommodation, care and support for people who require nursing or personal care, including people living with dementia. The service can accommodate up to 66 people. At the time of our visit, there were 51 people living at The Rowans. The provider had ensured admissions to the service had been measured and safe.

The service is set over 3 floors with spacious lounges, dining spaces and appropriate communal areas on the 1st and 2nd floors. The 3rd floor contains catering and laundry facilities, as well as areas for staff, including a training room and a rest room dedicated for staff.

The inspection took place between 19 March until 11 April 2025. This inspection consisted of all quality statements under the key questions of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. We visited the service on 19 and 26 March 2025.

The service was outstandingly caring. Staff were referred to as ‘care companions’ and were exceptionally kind and caring, demonstrating a real empathy and understanding of people with dementia. People were treated with kindness, compassion and involved as partners in their care, and given the privacy and dignity they needed. Arrangements for social activities showed a creative approach that met people's needs and helped them lead a full life. Relatives and professionals agreed the service was excellent at providing person-centred care.

Care plans were personalised, considering people’s communication, personal and health needs. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. Staff ensured people understood their care, enabling them to give informed consent and involved those important to people in decision making, where people did not have capacity for this themselves. Policies and systems supported staff practice and enabled people to be involved in their care planning.

The service was outstandingly well-led by a compassionate, pro-active manager, assisted by the whole staff team and fully supported by a strong senior management team, including the CEO, who was present during this assessment. The service had a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning and trust; there was a positive culture where people and staff felt comfortable in raising concerns. The environment and equipment met people’s needs, was well-maintained and mitigated risks. Managers ensured staff received training and appraisals to maintain high-quality standards of care.

The company’s care ethos is ‘Ohana’, a Hawaiian word meaning extended family, and this encapsulated what the provider was striving to create in the home. The recruitment journey ensured staff had the right skills, qualifications and experience but also ensured new recruits possessed vital personal characteristics such as empathy, self-awareness and good social skills. The provider fully supported staff development and wellbeing and recognised the importance of a well-thought-out staff retention strategy. Staff of the highest calibre were an extremely important resource and integral to the delivery of good quality care.

Environmental risk assessments and robust safety checks were in place and complete. The environment was clean and fresh throughout the home; effective cleaning schedules helped to ensure people were safe from infection. Safe medicines practices were followed. Staff managed medicines well, involving people in planning any changes. There were enough staff to meet people's needs.

We found well-trained staff, passionate about their role, who told us they were fully supported in their role by leaders. The provider demonstrated how effective governance systems and processes established in the service aligned to ensure people remained safe, whilst overseeing the quality of care and continually seeking ways to improve. There was excellent engagement with all stakeholders, partner agencies and professionals involved in people’s care; this ensured people were given opportunities positive outcomes e for the best outcomes and transitions when moving services.

Updated 22 January 2025

People described how staff treated them with kindness and respect, ensuring any personal care was done sensitively to help preserve their privacy and dignity. Where people could not directly tell us about their experience, we used observations to assess whether they received good care. This approach showed people were included and listened to and we saw staff interactions with people were consistently positive. We observed staff offering people choices and people’s independence was promoted. People received care that focused on achieving positive outcomes for people and followed best practice, with input from a range of health and social care professionals.

Families were extremely positive about the team culture in the home. They were very complimentary about the new manager who had only been managing The Rowans for a few months. Leaders demonstrated their commitment and openness to innovation, and partnership working to ensure people living in the home were safe and had opportunities to do things they enjoyed doing. We found people were receiving effective, person-centred care from an extremely caring and compassionate staff team

felt very safe living in the home; we received consistently positive feedback from people, relatives and visitors who spoke positively about their care experiences, expressing confidence in the leadership and the staff teams; they felt staff went the extra mile to provide person-centred care. Comments from people included, ‘The staff are well trained; nothing is too much trouble for them.’, ‘They [staff] are very well trained in how to deal with people with dementia. They understand how to be calm, how to coax people and so the unit is calm most of the time, which is amazing’ and ‘Staff are well trained. They handle people very well; they are friendly, patient and demonstrate that they treat everyone as individuals.’

People were supported to understand their rights and how the service would make sure these were respected; friends and families were free to visit them with no restrictions and were actively encouraged to join in home life. People were supported to take positive risks, to ensure they had as much choice and control of their lives as possible. People were encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities which helped support their independence, health and wellbeing. People we spoke with supported this and said there was a range of interesting activities to keep them physically and mentally active.