Holmwood Care Centre

Updated 11 December 2024

We carried out our onsite assessment on 06 and 08 January 2025, off site assessment activity started on 16 December 2024 and ended on 29 January 2025. We looked at all 5 domains of Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led.

Holmwood Care Centre is a nursing home providing nursing and personal care for up to 60 people. The service provides support to younger and older adults who may have a physical disability. At the time of our assessment there were 41 people using the service. Holmwood Care Centre accommodates people in 1 adapted building over 3 floors. People also have access to multiple enclosed garden areas. At the time of our site visit Holmwood Care Centre was registered to support people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. Following conversations with the manager and regional manager during our visit, it was agreed this service user band would be removed, as the provider was not looking to change the purpose of the service provision to support people who had a learning disability as their primary care need. This part of the registration was removed during the writing of this report. The service was not currently supporting people with a learning disability as their primary care need.

The assessment was completed due to concerns raised by relatives that people’s personal care needs were not being met. We found concerns in areas of person centred care and promoting people’s dignity and identified two breaches of regulation, regulation 9 Person Centred Care, and regulation 10, Dignity and privacy.

At the time of our visit the current provider, The Future Care Group, was in the process of selling the service to a new provider Aria Care Group which was to take place on 31 January 2025. The regional manager advised there had been senior management restructures over the last 6 months prior to the official sale date.

Updated 11 December 2024

People told us they felt safe, but felt there were not enough staff to maintain their dignity and spend time with them. We saw most interactions were positive, however we did raise our concerns with the manager due to some agency staff’s approach to supporting people. Permanent staff understood people’s care and social needs and adapted their approach and support in line with people’s individual preferences, however some agency staff did not always have the information they needed to enable them to do this.

Relatives felt family members were well cared for and staff were doing their best. However, they also raised concerns around low staffing levels and the negative impact this had on their family member. Where they had raised concerns, they felt listened to, actions had been taken and improvements made.

Staff felt the service was safe however staff felt the high use of agency and the quality of the care provision by some agency staff was not well managed. Staff felt confident to raise any concerns or suggestions and felt listened to by the management team, who acted on these promptly. Staff gave mixed feedback about the quality of the training. However, staff were aware of upcoming training with the new provider of the service.

There was a new provider who were in the process of supporting the management team to drive improvement within the service. The provider completed checks and audits to ensure the service was delivering safe and effective care.