Abbeygate

Ratings

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

Date of assessment: 29 September to 3 October 2025. Abbeygate is a care home registered to provide accommodation and personal care to older people, some of whom are living with dementia. The service provides care and support to up to 20 people. At the time of the assessment there were 16 people using the service. At our last assessment, published June 2025, the service was rated requires improvement. The provider was in breach of the legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. We carried out this assessment to review actions taken by the provider following our last assessment. We found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. We assessed 18 quality statements in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led key questions. The ratings for the quality statements we did not assess remain unchanged. The overall rating for the service has changed to good. Improvements had been made since the last assessment regarding the management of risks within the service. There was a positive culture within the service. Staff reported feeling supported, and people using the service and their relatives spoke positively of their experience. Staffing levels were sufficient to meet people’s needs however, further work was needed to ensure staff had completed all required training. Staff knew the people they supported well, and people were supported to take positive risks. Staff managed medicines safely, and the provider assessed and managed the risk of infection. Governance had improved overall, although some processes required further work to be consistently effective.

People's experience of this service

We spoke with 10 people who used the service and 8 relatives about their experience of the care provided. Some people could not directly tell us about their experiences, which meant we spent time observing interactions with staff. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI), a structured observation tool to help us understand their experience and assess whether they received good care. We observed a supportive environment where staff encouraged people to maintain their independence. Interactions between staff and people using the service were kind and caring. People and their relatives spoke positively about their experiences. One person shared, “I love it here. The carers are so helpful to me.” A relative commented, “The care is very good.”