An Ipswich care home has been rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for a second inspection in a row.

The Prince of Wales Care Home, which is run by Partnership in Care, aced four out of the five key areas the CQC inspects following its unannounced visit in December – improving its care and responsive inspection areas from “good” to “outstanding”.

The report says the team has built on its previous success and “sustained the outstanding model of care and support provided to people living in the home referred to as the ‘whole team’ approach”.

The report from the CQC reads: “The directors of the company, management team and staff continued to find ways to improve the service and remained driven by their passion for caring for people, including those with dementia.

“The vision and the value of the service to ‘enable people to live as they choose’ remained embedded in the home.

“Staff had an excellent understanding of people’s needs and were imaginative in the way they provided person-centred care which put people at the heart of the service.

“They continued to find creative ways of supporting people to have an exceptional quality of life.”

The care home was one of the first in the country to achieve an “outstanding” rating after the watchdog introduced a new rating system in 2014.

Maxine Brand, who manages the home, said she was pleased the hard work and dedication of the team had been recognised.

She said: “It was a nice surprise that we had managed outstanding again and I was pleased to see we had bettered ourselves in two categories.

“It is fantastic.

“There is a lot of hard work that goes into it – it is a real team effort.

“I think the main thing is we have to be focussed on the people living in the home – we are led by them.

“You have to stay on top of things, you don’t stagnate if you are concentrating on your residents.

“It has to be all about the people living here.

“They are the people we have to make sure are happy.

“If the CQC think so too that’s great but it is the people who are the start and the end of it.

“They are everything to us.

“We are quite unusual as we see ourselves as a family.”