- Care home
The Woodlands Care Home
Assessment report published 17 September 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 29 April to 2 May 2025. The assessment was completed due to concerns received about the quality of the service. The Woodlands is a 'care home' and supports up to 16 older people and those living with sensory impairments, across two floors. People in care homes receive accommodation, nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. At the time of our inspection the service supported 14 people. As part of the assessment we reviewed records, spoke with staff, leaders and relatives and reviewed records in relation to people’s support.
We looked at a range of quality statements across the domains of safe, effective, and well-led. At this assessment we found the provider was in breach of 4 legal regulations in relation to, safe care and treatment, good governance, staffing and fit and proper persons employed.
People were exposed to the risk of harm because the provider failed to ensure the premises were safe to use for their intended purpose. Parts of the service were unclean, unhygienic, and poorly maintained. Care plans failed to reflect people’s current needs or accurately identify and manage risks, and there was limited evidence of meaningful engagement with people, relatives, or the wider community. The provider failed to ensure appropriate systems were in place to manage medicines safely. Audits were being completed; however, they failed to identify the issues and concerns found during the inspection.
The service was not well-led. Governance and management systems were ineffective, resulting in poor oversight, with numerous unaddressed actions, and low staff morale.
This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a time frame within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to some of the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
People gave mixed feedback on their experiences of care and support in the service. One person said, “Yes I like it here, I like my room and the food is great.” However, some people referenced the lack of meaningful activities. This was further supported within meeting minutes and surveys with a reoccurring reference to a lack of activity from people. Relatives commented on the lack of meaningful activities and stated, “There are little or no activities at the service.” Another relative stated, “Staff are very busy, sometimes too busy to sit and chat or to accompany someone down the corridor.”
People told us they liked their rooms and these were personalised to their own tastes. While people expressed general satisfaction with the home environment our assessment found elements of the environment did not meet the expected standards.
People told us they had to wait at times for personal care. People said when they pressed call bells these were not always answered quickly as the staff were so busy.