- Homecare service
Woburn House
Assessment report published 23 October 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 09 to 24 September 2026
Woburn House is a domiciliary care agency supporting people living in their own homes. The service supports people who may be autistic or living with a learning disability or physical disability, with personal care in several ‘supported living’ settings. 13 people were being supported with personal care at the time of this inspection.
We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ (RSRCRC) guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
At our last inspection the service was rated good. At this inspection the service’s rating has changed to requires improvement. We identified a breach in relation to good governance at this inspection.
When incidents happened such as people hurting themselves when they felt upset or police being called to support people, these were not always reported to CQC in line with guidance and legislation. It was unclear how incidents were being monitored for trends for some people. Some care plans and risk assessments at the service were not detailed enough to help staff support people safely. Staff recruitment checks were not thorough to help ensure staff were suitable for their job roles. Audits to monitor the quality of the service were not robust enough to identify where improvements may have needed to be made. The registered manager and management team took action to address these issues during our inspection; however, we could not be assured these would have happened without our direct input.
Staff were kind and caring and people and relatives were positive about their/ their family member’s support. Staff knew people well as individuals and there were enough staff to support them safely. Despite shortcomings in incident reporting and oversight, people were safe and incidents were discussed with the staff team to help promote learning. People were supported have choice and maintain their independence if they chose to do so. Other care plans and risk assessments were comprehensive about how to support people. People and relatives were supported to feed back about the service if they chose to do so. Staff supported people to live healthy lives and see health professionals when they needed to. Staff understood and supported people in line with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) People had been supported to live in their own homes for a long time and had achieved good outcomes that meant a lot to them. The management and staff team linked and worked well with professionals and partners such as local authorities. The registered manager and management team were compassionate, taking the time to make sure people and staff felt well supported. The culture at the service was positive and staff worked to the best of their ability to support people as individuals.
People's experience of this service
Despite CQC finding that people’s care had some shortfalls in relation to the standards we expect we found limited evidence of this having a negative impact on people. Most people and their relatives were satisfied with the care and support they/ their loved ones received.
People’s relatives told us they were happy with the way their loved one was cared for. We observed people to be happy and relaxed whilst being supported by the staff team. Staff did their best to support people to have a full and active life in line with their preferences and choices about how they liked to spend their time. Many people using the service had not been able to live in the community long term due to their support needs. However, they had successfully lived in their own home in the community for some time using this service. One person showed us how they liked what they did with the staff team by using signs, gestures and body language and by physically showing us how staff had helped them to follow their interests. A relative told us, ‘‘[Family member] is very happy and settled and absolutely loves their home and the staff team.’’