Archived: Willow Court

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – This means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care, supported learning and innovation, and promoted an open and fair culture. At our last assessment, we rated this key question as good. At this assessment, the rating has remained good. This meant the service continued to be consistently managed and well-led. Leaders, and the culture they created, promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff understood the values of the service and described a shared commitment to providing good care. They spoke about working together as1team and said there was a positive culture that supported open communication between day and night staff. Staff told us leaders encouraged a respectful approach to care and promoted involvement, independence and dignity. Staff said they felt supported and the service was moving in a consistent direction under the current leadership. This helped create a shared culture where staff focused on what mattered to people.

Leaders were approachable and staff told us they felt supported in their roles. The new manager was visible in the service and staff said they checked in with them and encouraged their development. Staff described leaders as compassionate and said they promoted a positive team culture where concerns could be raised openly. Senior staff were described as reliable and willing to offer guidance and staff said communication across the service had improved. These approaches helped create an inclusive and supportive environment where staff focused on delivering good care.

Staff told us they felt able to raise concerns and said they were listened to when they did so. They described a culture where issues could be discussed openly with senior staff and said managers were approachable and supportive. Staff explained they were confident reporting worries about people’s safety or the environment and felt comfortable speaking up during handovers or directly to leaders. They said they were aware of who to go to if they had concerns and felt these would be responded to. This helped create an open culture where staff felt safe to share concerns and contribute to improvements.

Staff told us they were treated fairly and felt respected in their roles. They said managers were approachable and supportive and that the service encouraged open communication across the team. Staff described a positive culture where colleagues worked well together and felt valued for their contribution. New staff told us they had been supported during induction and felt included in the team. Staff said the service was accommodating when they needed flexibility which helped them feel supported in maintaining a work and life balance. These approaches helped create an inclusive working environment where staff felt able to contribute to good quality care.

Governance systems were in place and were beginning to strengthen under the new manager, but they were not yet fully effective. For example, the provider had shared several updated care plans which were detailed and of good quality, however, other care plans required further development to ensure they accurately reflected people’s needs. Staff training had been reviewed and there was evidence that outstanding training was being chased promptly, but the systems to prevent gaps arising were not yet embedded. The manager had undertaken a significant amount of work, and this had led to visible improvements, however this represented recent progress rather than evidence of sustained and embedded governance. Further work was needed to ensure the systems in place were robust enough to maintain improvements over time and provide consistent oversight of quality and safety.

The service worked with external professionals and community groups to support people’s health and wellbeing. Staff told us they had regular contact with district nurses and GPs and that advice was followed to support people’s needs. People had access to visits from professionals such as hairdressers and the service welcomed involvement from local groups including schools who took part in activities with people. These links helped people stay connected to the wider community and ensured they received coordinated support from health and social care partners.

The service had a developing learning culture and staff described how practice had improved under the new manager. Incidents were reviewed and information was shared with staff so practice could be strengthened. Staff told us communication between day and night teams had improved and that changes to systems such as the electronic care records had helped support more consistent information sharing. Leaders encouraged development and supported staff to build their skills which helped drive improvement. The service had plans in place to continue embedding new systems and to build on recent progress which supported ongoing learning and improvement across the team.