- Care home
The Lodge
Report from 3 April 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of inspection: 21 and 22 July 2025. We inspected both sites at The Lodge, a residential care home providing support to adults over and under 65 years, including people living with dementia and those with mental health needs. The service can accommodate up to 44 people; at the time of the inspection, 39 people were living at the home. The service operates across two houses on one site: the larger house supports older people, while the Coach House provides care for up to 5 people with mental health needs. There was a registered manager in post.
People had care plans in place which documented their care needs. Some care plans did not have adequate risk assessments for people living with conditions such as diabetes. We found some care plans did not have information in sufficient detail to guide staff to act in an emergency when a person lost/lacked capacity and required others to take immediate action to keep them safe.
The service had enough staff employed to keep people safe. Pre-employment checks for care staff were completed safely. Staff received an induction at the beginning of their employment as well as regular training and supervision. The service managed people’s medicines safely. The service had a range of policies and procedures in place for staff to follow to work towards keeping people safe and keeping the service running smoothly.
At our last inspection, we found the managerial oversight of the service had improved and the quality assurance checks in place enabled the registered manager and senior staff to pro-actively respond to identified events. However, this inspection identified several environmental concerns that posed an immediate serious risk to people residing at the service. This included unrestricted windows above ground level, wardrobes not affixed to walls, access to loft areas and steep staircases, fire doors propped open and metal radiator covers. We requested an action plan from the provider to address the concerns identified during this assessment. These shortfalls had not been identified and addressed by the provider at the time of our inspection. Therefore, the governance systems in place were not robust enough to independently identify and act on shortfalls.
We identified breaches of regulation relating to governance and safety.