Updated 16 July 2025
Date of assessment 29 July to 28 August 2025. We visited the care home on 29 July and 21 August 2025. Philia Lodge Rest Home is a care home providing personal care for up to 20 people who may live with dementia. Accommodation is arranged over two floors with stair and lift access. At the time of this assessment there were 18 people using the service. Our unannounced assessment was prompted by concerns received about the safety of the care being delivered. This was a comprehensive assessment, and we reviewed all of the quality statements. At the last assessment the service was rated good. At this assessment the service has remained good. This assessment was undertaken by 3 inspectors and 1 operations manager.
We found no concerns about the safety of care provided. Incidents and accidents had been reported, investigated by the provider and lessons learnt were shared with staff. Staff had the right skills and qualifications to carry out their roles. We found there were enough staff to meet people’s needs, however, the provider was in the process of implementing a new dependency tool to ensure this was robustly assessed. Medicines were managed safely; however, medicine protocols were not always clear to identify when required medicines should be administered. Furthermore, when medicine patches were applied to the skin, staff did not always follow a clear recording process. The provider took action during the assessment to ensure these areas were addressed.
The provider and senior management team carried out regular assurance visits, and staff told us they were approachable. Action plans were produced, and these were monitored at provider level for completion. Safety checks had been completed for equipment used and fire risks were acted upon, assessed and managed.
We found care plans were not always fully reflective of people’s needs, and what is normal for them, however, the new manager was in the process of reviewing and updating care plans to rectify this. We found staff knew people well and followed effective safeguarding processes and systems to manage safeguarding concerns. People had enough to eat and drink to stay healthy. Staff worked with other health and social care professionals to improve outcomes and monitored people’s health to support healthy living.
The service was clean, and we found staff followed infection prevention and control guidelines. Staff told us there was an open culture and they felt valued and respected by the manager and provider. We observed people’s consent was sought, and the provider followed correct processes when people lacked capacity to make specific decisions.