A SCOTTISH Borders Council-run care home visited by Princess Anne four days before The Queen’s funeral needs to improve its service, inspectors have found.

Representatives of the Care Inspectorate identified a number of areas of good practice at Waverley Residential Home in Elm Row, Galashiels.

The inspectors accepted that Scottish Borders Council had used lessons learned from other local authority care homes to launch improvements.

But the visit, carried out a month after The Princess Royal met residents and staff, rated five areas as merely ‘adequate’, including the support for people’s well-being, the quality of leadership and how well care and support is planned.

Adult social care managers with SBC have now drawn up a ‘robust action plan’ with the care home manager and the senior team to ensure six areas of improvement are met.

In evaluating care, the Care Inspectorate use a six-point scale where one is unsatisfactory and six is excellent.

However, the report did conclude that in the area of supporting people’s wellbeing “strengths, taken together, clearly outweighed areas for improvement”.

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Inspectors also found staff to be respectful, warm and kind and that people felt included and accepted, with one relative commenting that the “carers are doing a fantastic job”.

The areas that need to be addressed include improving aspects of medicines management, providing meaningful activity, reviewing staff training and ensuring support plans are reviewed to reflect person-centred outcomes.

Councillor David Parker, the council’s executive member for health and well-being, said: “The positive feedback contained in this report clearly illustrates the dedication and commitment of the staff team at Waverley, which is greatly appreciated by all residents and their family carers. Our social care staff continue to face a range of challenges and it is encouraging to see their commitment and hard work recognised by inspectors.

“A robust action plan is already being implemented to address the areas for improvement and I have every confidence that this will result in residents receiving an even higher standard of care.”

The Inspectorate has no plans to return to the care home before the inspection due in 2023.