- Care home
The Willows
Assessment report published 28 January 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of inspection 04 November to 11 November 2025.
The Willows is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 32 people. The service provides support to older and younger adults some of whom are living with dementia. At the time of our inspection 23 people were living at the home and 1 person was in hospital.
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (report published 10 June 2025), and we identified 1 breach of the legal regulations. Conditions were imposed on the provider’s registration which required them to provide us with monthly reports on the improvements they were making to meet this regulation. We undertook this inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements.
At this inspection, the service remained in breach of the legal regulations in relation to governance of the service and a further breach was identified in relation to safe care and treatment.
The provider’s systems and processes failed to identify, manage and mitigate some environmental risks. Improvements were needed to ensure all potential risks associated with people’s health and support needs were identified and assessed to ensure they were managed safely. Some equipment in place to mitigate identified risks such as falls were unsuitable and therefore, increased the risk of harm for those people.
Overall staff understood their responsibilities to keep people safe. Care records informed staff, for example if a person had capacity to make their own decisions or not. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests.
The staff team worked in partnership with other professionals to achieve good outcomes for people. Staff were recruited safely, and medicines were administered as prescribed, by staff trained in medicines management. Staff felt valued and supported by the management team and enjoyed working for the provider.
The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. The service has now been rated requires improvement for the last 5 consecutive inspections. While some improvements had been made. These needed to be sustained and embedded in practice and further improvements were needed. 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.
People's experience of this service
We received mixed feedback from people about their experience of the service provided. Some people were frustrated with the time they waited for staff to respond to their call bells and requests for help. While other people were happy with the support they received and described the staff as “kind” and “good.”
People’s privacy and dignity were not always promoted. For example, some people had to wait to be supported with their personal care, and some people’s bedroom curtains did not fully close, which meant their privacy was not fully respected. Other people told us they were not always given the opportunity to make choices for example, what they wanted to eat.
Most people felt safe living at The Willows and were supported by a consistent staff team. People told us some improvements had been made since our last inspection. For example, there were more opportunities to participate in meaningful activities. However, people said this could be improved further by supporting them to go out in the local community.
People where possible were involved in planning and reviewing their care and support. People had access to health and social care professionals to support their physical health and wellbeing.