This was an unannounced inspection which took place on 26 September 2016.

Woodlands is registered to provide care (without nursing) for up to 40 older people. The provider has two other care homes in the area. Some people may be living with dementia or other conditions associated with the ageing process. There were 38 people resident on the day of the visit. The building offers accommodation over two floors. There were a number of shared areas within the service which afforded people choice to pursue activities individually or in small groups.

The service has a registered manager running the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People benefitted from an exceptionally well-managed service. The registered manager was very approachable and very well supported by a general manager and the provider. The service ensured that very high quality and up-to-date care was provided. People's views and comments were listened to and proactively used as part of the quality assurance process. The service made sure they acted on the findings of the various processes and people’s views to improve the quality of care they provided.

The service was highly responsive to the needs, preferences and wishes of people who live in the home. The care provided is totally person centred and meets people’s individual and diverse needs. They along with people and their families, continually review people’s needs. When people’s needs change they take action to ensure they provide the best care possible for the individual. The service is extremely good at helping people to enjoy their lifestyle.

The service kept people, staff and visitors to the service as safe as possible. Risks were identified and managed to make sure that people and others were kept as safe as possible. Staff were provided with training in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults and in health and safety policies and procedures. They were able to describe how they kept people safe and were very committed to protecting people in their care. Adequate numbers of appropriately trained and skilled staff were available to provide people with safe care. The service’s recruitment procedure ensured that as far as possible, all staff employed were suitable and safe to work with vulnerable people. People were given their medicines in the right amounts at the right times by staff who had been trained to carry out this task.

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff built strong and caring relationships with people and their families and friends. People were treated with dignity and the greatest respect at all times. Staff treated people as individuals and respected their lifestyle choices. People were given compassionate end of life care.

The management team and staff protected people’s rights to make their own decisions and people were asked to consent to their care. The staff team understood the relevance of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and consent issues which related to the people in their care. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 legislation provides a legal framework that sets out how to act to support people who do not have capacity to make a specific decision. The service made DoLS applications to the appropriate authorities, as necessary.

People’s health, well- being and spiritual needs were met by staff who were very well trained and supported to meet people’s overall and individual needs. The service worked closely with other professionals and assisted people to make sure they received effective health and well-being care. Staff were trained in specific areas so they could effectively meet people’s diverse and changing needs.

People's relatives that we spoke with told us that people were treated with dignity and respect and that their independence was encouraged and that they were spoken to in a respectful way. Observations during our inspection confirmed this.

A relative told us "The home is tremendous" and "Great care, complete peace of mind". Observations during our inspection showed us that people were able to make their own choices and that staff gave people the opportunity to make these choices.

Staff records that we looked at showed us that staff had received mandatory training as well as additional training to meet the needs of people using the service. Staff felt supported and told us "Were a great team we work together really well". Observations during our inspection confirmed this.

People were provided with a well-balanced and nutritious diet. People that we spoke with said that the food was good and that there were always plenty of choices. Staff that we spoke with had good knowledge around the importance of providing a healthy and well-balanced diet for people that use the service.

We saw that the home worked alongside a variety of professionals, who regularly visited the home to assess and monitor the health and wellbeing of people that use the service. We saw that all of these visits had been recorded and signed off.

We spoke with six people who used this service and two friends of people who were visiting.

People told us they liked living at this home and the staff always respected their privacy and choices. People said "The staff are lovely here they look after me very well." "I can choose what to do and there are activities available." We found that the staff treated people with respect and that they had included and consulted people when they planned their care.

People told us the staff met their care needs and encouraged them to remain as independent as possible. We found that people's needs had been met through the delivery of appropriate care.

People said "I feel safe here." "I am safe and I could speak to the staff if I was worried." We found that staff had received training with regard to how to protect people from abuse or harm.

People told us they had opportunities to give their views during regular residents' and review meetings and through their representatives on the residents' committee. People said that staff responded positively to their views. We found the provider had an effective system for assessing the quality of the service and they valued people's views and acted on these to improve the service.

People said "I know how to complain." "I would speak to the staff if I had any complaints and they would help me." People had been given written guidance about complaints. When people had made complaints these had been resolved to their satisfaction.

A number of the residents who live at Woodlands had dementia and therefore not everyone was able to tell us about their experiences. To help us to understand the experiences of people, we used our SOFI (Short Observational Framework for Inspection) tool. The SOFI tool allows us to spend time watching what is going on in a service and helps us to record how people spend their time, the type of support they get and whether they have positive experiences.

Residents who could express a view told us they were very happy at the home. They said that the staff were "kind" and " helpful".

They told us their bedrooms were kept clean and tidy.

Other residents told us that the food was lovely, but that at times they had to wait a long time for the food to be served.

Relatives told us they felt able to raise any complaints and that they would be responded to and dealt with in a timely manner.

One resident and their relative told us that staff did not knock on their door prior to entering their bedroom.

One regular visitor to the home told us "I have always found the residents extremely well cared for, and I would hold all the members of staff with nothing but the utmost respect and high regard for the way that the residents are treated".