- Care home
Archived: Sovereign House
Assessment report published 6 May 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
We carried out this assessment between 12 and 14 January 2026, we visited the service on 12 January 2026. Sovereign House is a residential care home supporting older people who may be living with dementia. 10 people were living at the service at the time of our assessment. We completed this assessment as the service had not been assessed since 2022 and we had received concerns from the local authority about the care people received. We identified breaches of regulation relating to staffing, management of risks in relation to people’s care and in the event of an emergency, medicines, infection control, learning lessons when things went wrong, governance, consent and gathering and responding to feedback. Following our assessment the provider closed the service and people were supported to move to alternative services.
We found the provider and registered manager did not have effective systems in place to protect people from the risk of harm. Risks to people had not been robustly assessed and their care had not been planned to mitigate risks. People did not have access to equipment and technology they needed to keep them safe including evacuation and monitoring equipment. Medication was not stored safely and infection control risks were not managed. People’s needs were not robustly assessed, using recognised tools, and their needs were not kept under review so they always received the care they needed.
Staff had not been supported to develop and maintain the skills they needed to provide people’s care, including how to safely move people or evacuate them in an emergency. Care staff were also responsible for cleaning the service and preparing meals. They did not have time to spend with people and we observed people spent long periods of time alone and unoccupied.
The provider and registered manager had not established a clear culture at the service which centred around people and their individual needs and wishes. They had not considered people’s equality needs or acted to ensure they were not the subject of discrimination. The provider had not kept the quality of the service under review or requested people’s feedback about the service they received. They were unaware of the shortfalls we found during our assessment. The registered manager had not kept up to date with changes in practice or built links with other professionals. Learning was not prioritised when things went wrong and systems were not in operation to continually develop and improve the service.
People's experience of this service
People and their relatives were positive about the care they received at Sovereign House and reported that staff were kind and caring and the registered manager knew people well. However, we found staff did not have time to spend with people and people were not supported to take part in pastimes they enjoyed to support their wellbeing. People had not been involved in planning what happened at the service and routines were task based rather than considering what people wanted to do and when.