National care inspectors praise Witney care home

Home news

Jun 10, 2021

A national care watchdog has given a Witney care home its seal of approval, with relatives and residents praising the caring and attentive team members.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) report gave Care UK’s Millers Grange, on Curbridge Road, an overall ‘Good’ rating, following an unannounced inspection.

The home received ‘good’ ratings in all five categories, including safety, effectiveness, level of care, responsiveness and having a well-led service.

A purpose-built home, Millers Grange impressed CQC inspectors with its warm and friendly atmosphere, with one local healthcare professional commenting: “Staff here are very caring and genuinely loving. They have amazing interactions with people all the time”. The home team even has its own mantra: “Millers Grange should be a resident's home, their home”. One relative said: “The culture at the home is geared around allowing the residents to lead a fulfilling life, however they want to do that and my mother has enjoyed helping out with small jobs such as setting tables.”

Further praise came for the home’s activity-based approach to caring for residents. Inspectors were impressed with the dedicated lifestyle team and the array of activities on offer every day. Alongside arts, craft and fashion sessions, residents are encouraged to try new hobbies and activities too. A resident said: “I enjoy carpet bowls sessions. I love it, it gets very competitive sometimes”.

The home has also developed great links with the nursery next door and residents have enjoyed regular ‘over-the-fence’, socially-distanced visits from the children throughout lockdown –  sharing stories, reminiscing about their younger years or simply enjoying a nice catch-up.   

In addition to developing strong relationships with the community and maintaining those links throughout lockdown, Millers Grange has invested in technology to enable residents to virtually connect with loved ones on a regular basis throughout the last year, keeping up a schedule to ensure everybody could get as much quality time with their families as possible.

The report also noted that Millers Grange offered state-of-the-art facilities, including a cinema room and café. Residents have the opportunity to personalise their rooms, which include memory boxes outside each bedroom door, helping them to identify their room more easily and to remain as independent as possible while navigating the home.

Inspectors praised the nutritious, high-quality meals provided to residents, tailored to their needs and preferences. One resident said: “The food here is excellent, they give us homemade bread”, while a relative added that her loved one’s diet “had certainly improved since she was living alone.”

Alison Parry, Home Manager at Millers Grange, said: “We are extremely happy and proud to receive this Good CQC rating, especially for our first-ever inspection. As a fairly new home, this result is a true testament to the team’s caring, passionate attitude and to their hard work ensuring residents receive high-quality, round-the-clock care.

“We have a clear, person-centered ethos which includes compassion, dignity, respect and safety, and we’ve worked hard to maintain an open and transparent culture among team members too, enabling them to do their jobs in the best possible conditions. I’d like to say a big thank you to the team for creating a nurturing, warm environment residents are proud to call home.”

To assess service standards at Millers Grange, the CQC inspectors spoke with team members, residents, and their visiting relatives on the day of the inspection. They also reviewed the records and procedures already in place at the care home.

Millers Grange has been designed to deliver the very best standards of care and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. The home provides full-time residential dementia and respite care.

To find out more about Millers Grange, please call Home Manager, Alison Parry, on 01993 764730 or email alison.parry@careuk.com

For more information, visit careuk.com/millers-grange