AN ALLENDALE care service is celebrating a new lease of life after earning praise from a health watchdog.

Thornley Leazes Care offers both residential care and home visits for people in the Allendale and Catton communities.

An inspection from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January 2015 found that the service was not meeting a number of regulations.

However, a recent follow-up inspection reported improvements in all areas where regulations which had been breached.

The unannounced inspection took place on November 10 and November 11 last year.

The subsequent report rated Thornley Leazes as ‘good.’

Domiciliary care manager Carolyn Harrison said: “After working very hard to make sure that our ranking improved, the whole staff team is immensely proud and happy.

“The residents are over the moon that everything is going well in their home.

“It’s given the whole home a new lease of life and everyone is ready to move forward.”

Care, efficiency, safety and responsiveness were all found to be of a good standard.

Concerns relating to medicine management had been addressed and measures put in place to ensure people’s safety.

Inspectors heard from those in receipt of care that they felt safe living at Thornley Leazes care home and receiving domiciliary care.

Staff were described as providing ‘people-centred’ care, supporting people’s independence and maintaining their dignity.

Residents were encouraged to pursue a range of activities by staff and reported to inspectors that the food provided was of a good standard.

Carolyn Harrison added: “The support from the local community is important for this home.

“People really do make sure our residents are part of the community, which is great.”

The only category found to require improvement was leadership.

Improvements to quality assurance systems and processes had been made.

And formal documented audits related to infection control, health and safety matters and medicines had been introduced.

However, inspectors concluded that the auditing required further development and some recording across the service should be improved.

Manager Linda Charlton said that the necessary improvements outlined in the report had now been addressed by the service.