The Willows Home Care North East

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. This was the first inspection for this service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this. 

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. A person said, “The carers are always happy and smiley. I look forward to them coming to my home.”

Staff treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. A staff member said, “We really want to make sure people get the best care possible and are happy. We treat them as if they are family members.”

Staff promoted people’s independence, and made sure they knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People confirmed any changes to the ways staff supported were discussed with them and agreed. Staff promoted people's rights and supported individuals to make choices around how they lived their lives and reached their aspirations. One relative said, “The staff really know [person’s name] and will always give them space to make up their own mind about things. It’s all done in such a relaxed way that [person’s name] really is in control.”

People told us staff listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff were very knowledgeable about each person using the service and could describe their needs, including how any of their cultural needs were met. A staff member said, “If there are any changes to people’s needs, we make sure these are raised with [registered manager’s name] and they make sure action is taken to make sure we can adapt the care package.”

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to deliver person-centred care. Staff confirmed that the management team supported their wellbeing to make sure they could give their best to people when at work. To support staff become familiar with life working in care in England, staff spent 6 months in the provider’s care home learning the skills they needed including preparing and cooking meals before starting to deliver homecare. A staff member said, “[Registered manager’s name] is great at making sure we are okay and we are treated really well.”