Westwinds Residential Care

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• 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.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service.

This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 63 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service did not always make sure people’s care and treatment were effective.

Care plans did not always include consistent and accurate information, and some lacked detail about people’s specific needs. For example, where staff were using specific communication methods with people, these were not always included in their care plans. Some aspects of people’s care plans such as sexuality and cultural needs lacked detail. This meant there was a risk people would receive inconsistent care and support.

People’s medicines care plans did not always include up to date and person-centred information about how they wished to take their medications.

However, people and relatives had been involved in care planning and reviews.

The provider was working on an improvement plan to improve the level of detail included in people’s care plans.

The service 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 and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Staff supported people to eat and drink to prevent malnutrition or dehydration. Where people required a higher level of support around this, staff recorded their food and fluid intake. We discussed with the registered the need to ensure staff always recorded accurately how much fluid people had consumed, where needed.

We observed people were supported according to their needs and were offered plenty of choice around food and drink. One person told us, “I get to choose what meals I have, breakfast, lunch, dinner. I always have enough to drink.” One relative told us, “There are always drinks available. [Person] is enjoying the meals. They are diabetic and staff support them to have an appropriate diet.” Another relative told us, “Staff cater to [person’s] food intolerances.”

The service worked well across teams and services to support people.

The staff team worked well together. One staff member told us, “I am so proud of the team. Everyone is so hard working and does their best for everyone. Staff do all they can for the residents.”

Staff shared information about changes in people’s needs through handover meetings.

The staff team worked well with external services. One professional visiting the service told us, “Staff are kind with me, and we have a good rapport. We use telephone triage with the care home to determine if a visit is required, staff assist us well with giving information. Staff get back in touch with us if needed.”

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control.

Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. One relative told us, “I often see people doing armchair exercises when I visit.”

We saw evidence the service sought support from healthcare professionals when they identified people could benefit from this. When people were unwell, records showed that staff facilitated access to the GP or other healthcare agencies quickly. For example, where staff had been concerned about potential infections or lack of fluid intake.

We observed various healthcare professionals visiting people over the course of our onsite inspection. One visiting professional told us, “Staff are really good at making referrals over the phone. They are very knowledgeable about their residents and often try things before we even make suggestions. They act on our recommendations.”

Systems were in place to monitor people’s care and treatment. However, records were not always completed effectively.

The care home staff and visiting professionals we spoke with expressed people were monitored where required and had good outcomes. However, we found systems in place to monitor people’s care and identify issues were not always effective.

One person required their bowel movements to be monitored as part of their health condition. However, their bowel chart was completed inconsistently by staff. Where people required fluid charts to be completed by staff, this was not always done accurately. This meant there was a risk issues would not be identified or followed up.

One person’s risk assessment guided staff to weigh them weekly, however this was only done monthly. While we did not observe any impact on people’s health as a result of these issues, there was a risk staff would not identify and escalate concerns quickly, where required.

The service did not always tell people about their rights around consent and did not always respect their rights when delivering care and treatment.

CCTV was operated in communal areas. However, the service did not have a CCTV policy in place. They had not obtained consent from people about its usage and where people lacked mental capacity in relation to this, best interest decisions had not been documented. This meant the provider could not be assured that they had considered the requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), people’s consent or dignity in relation to CCTV. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the law that sets out how personal information must be handled, ensuring it is used lawfully, kept secure, and only shared when necessary, while protecting people’s confidentiality and privacy.

Following our feedback, the registered manager put a CCTV policy in place and had begun gaining people’s consent about the use of CCTV on the premises.

Where the service was required to assess people’s mental capacity and make best interest decisions, this was not always done.

However, we observed staff gaining people’s consent about everyday aspects of their care, such as with support around eating and drinking.