INSPECTORS have praised the quality of care, support, management and leadership at a Helensburgh care home.

The Care Inspectorate report stated that from speaking to service users at Northwood Care Home they were “generally happy with the care they receive”.

The home, which looks after 20 older people and provides 24-hour nursing care, was awarded a rating of four for their good quality of care and support, whilst attracting the same rating for quality of management and leadership.

The report highlighted the facility was “homely and comfortable” and has staff who “respond very well to the daily needs of the people who live there”.

Other positives were that the catering staff were very involved with everyone and that relatives were made welcome.

The report also praised the participation and involvement approaches in the care home, including ensuring that people knew that their opinions about their care mattered and that their quality of life mattered.

The report stated: “There were some very good examples of how each individual’s quality of life was being improved by the use of technology – reviews have involved relatives who are unable to come to visit by using Facetime/Skype and individual playlists for favourite music are being used.

“The manager is approachable and efficient and shows a strong commitment to providing a very good service to all. We saw that staff were professional and caring in their approach to service users.”

However, the report also highlighted areas of improvement, including balancing the needs of people who were living with dementia and showing distressed behaviour with the needs of others who needed a peaceful and relaxed environment.

The report also stated the home could look to improve on discrepancies in medication administration, but noted that since the inspection the manager had improved storage issues.

Three recommendations were stated in the report.

The first was for the manager and external manager to draw up a developmental plan for Northwood to identify a schedule of improvements in the quality of care, the training development and supervision of staff, the environment and the management of the service.

The second recommendation was to improve the management systems to make sure that quality is maintained across all aspects of the service, and the third was to ensure that care plans included clear detailed plans on how assessed needs will be met.

Manager Annette Gillies was happy that the care home had retained their score of four from the inspectors’ previous report, and said that they were always aiming to improve.

She said: “Although we retained our score of four we had positive feedback on things we had implemented including opening the care home to the public.

“We took the residents to Help for Heroes and we have had the Scouts and the nursery up to visit to try and involve the residents in the community and reduce isolation.

“Next year we will aim to score a five, we are always looking to improve.

“Thank you to all the staff for helping to run the home, it’s onwards and upwards. We take on board all the comments and will take action, there’s always room for improvement.”