Willow Home Care Ltd

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.