- Homecare service
Willow Home Care Ltd
Assessment report published 7 September 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 21 April to 18 May 2026. The service is a care at home service providing support to older people and younger adults living in their own homes with dementia, sensory impairment and physical disabilities. At the time of our assessment, 65 people were in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspect where people receive personal care, this includes support with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.
The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulations in relation to the management of risk to people and the governance of the service. Improvements were not found at this assessment, and the provider remained in breach of these 2 regulations.
In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.
This service remains in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.
People’s care records either did not fully assess or clearly plan for how to mitigate risks associated with their care. Risk assessment tools were not used correctly to get an accurate picture of a persons’ specific health needs. There were multiple areas where detailed guidance in people’s care plans was missing or incomplete, including skin integrity risks, risks associated with people’s health conditions and the safe management of medicines.
The provider did not have full oversight of staff practice, and we found incidents where staff had used unsafe moving and handling practices, not escalated concerns and not shared information about people running out of their medicines. Staff had also worked outside of their competency without the provider being aware. People were at risk of poor outcomes and there was little evidence of care having a positive impact on people.
The provider had made some improvement to their recruitment practices and care plan formats. Audits were also improved; however, there was limited evidence demonstrating how audit findings were analysed, actioned, and used to drive improvements. The provider did not have a formal service improvement plan, and although some changes had been implemented, there was no effective system to evaluate whether these improvements had resulted in better outcomes or sustained improvements in service quality.
People's experience of this service
Feedback from people and their relatives highlighted an inconsistent service. We received similar feedback from people and relatives as we did at our last assessment, including a lack of consistency of staff and not having their wishes respected for staff gender preferences. One person told us, “I just want them to provide the care I asked for so I don't have to keep phoning them.”
People told us they felt rushed by staff, intimidated by some staff and felt office staff were often rude to them. People experienced frequent late care calls which impacted on their health needs, and they did not always know what time and which staff would be arriving. One person said, “I should get a text on Fridays telling me who is coming the following Monday, but I’m not getting this anymore, I feel left in limbo.”
However, people and relatives did tell us they felt their regular care staff were mostly kind and respectful, with 1 person telling us, “Generally speaking they are kind and considerate.”