Willoughby House

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 18 November 2024. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

Willoughby House is a care home which supports people with learning disabilities and autistic people. The service is registered to accommodate up to 8 people. At the time of our assessment there were 6 people living at the service. We carried out this assessment in response to concerns raised at 1 of the provider’s other locations. The assessment took place between 8 July 2024 and 15 August 2024. We visited Willoughby House on 8 July 2024. We looked at 20 quality statements across the 5 key questions we use to inform our assessments: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about the services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. The provider was in beach of 4 regulations, management of risks to people, best practice in making decisions for people, the deployment of staff and the oversight of care in the home. Staff failed to identify risks and incidents, and the management team did not fully review incidents. This meant opportunities for learning and improving care were missed. When decisions were made in people’s best interest they were not always fully documented, and guidance was not in place to support staff. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. However, we could not be sure people’s identified individual support hours had been respected . People’s care was not always delivered in a way which promoted equality and ensured good outcomes. The oversight from both the registered manager and the provider had not ensured high quality care was provided and chances for improvement were not recognised.