- Care home
The Well House
Assessment report published 20 November 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
The Well House is a residential care home providing support and personal care to up to 14 people. The service provides support to people with a learning disability and autistic people. Some people live at The Well House on a permanent basis while others use the service on a rotational basis for short stays of one or more nights (respite).
This service was registered with CQC on 1 August 2010 and was known as Well House Care Sussex Ltd. However, it was highlighted during an assessment that The Well House is currently not correctly registered with CQC following a change in provider entity. The service is taking steps to apply to CQC to correctly register the service. As a result of the change in provider entity the regulated activity remains unaffected.
At the time of our assessment there were 9 people using the service. The home was separated into three buildings, the main house had accommodation over 3 floors, a 1 bedded self-contained annex, and a 4-bedded self-contained annex.
This assessment was carried out between the 5 August to 22 August 2025 as the service was previously rated requires improvement in February 2022 with 2 breaches of legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, and good governance. At this inspection we found insufficient improvements had been made and the provider remained in breach of these regulations.
The service specialised in the care of people with a learning disability and autistic people. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Whilst we found staff were caring, offered people choices, and treated people with dignity, the environment and facilities did not fully support people’s independence and choice.
People’s safety was not robustly managed. People’s risks to health, well-being and from the environment were not routinely assessed and reviewed. Staff did not have up to date risk assessments for staff to use and follow.
The maintenance of the service had not ensured peoples continued safety and the cleanliness of the service placed people at risk of cross infection. Fire safety risk management had not ensured all risks were minimised. We found that not all medicines were stored safely, and the medicine procedure did not reflect current practice.
The management arrangements had been unstable with the registered manager taking some agreed absence. The deputy manager was running the service without additional support. The service provision is complex and busy with regular changes in occupation as respite care is provided on a rolling programme.
Quality review and governance systems have not been fully established. The governance and overview of processes had not been robust enough to highlight the shortfalls found at this assessment. There was no system in place to audit the quality of the care documentation, the compliance with the legal regulations or the quality statements used by the CQC to monitor services. The service’s policies and procedures had not been fully implemented and embedded into practice.
Some improvements had been made and included regular staff supervision and team meetings. Time had been invested in setting up the new electronic care planning systems however, these were not currently available for staff to use. Feedback from people was sought and recorded. Staff told us they were supported listened to and able to share their views.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
People and their family members were very positive about the quality of the care and support provided by staff. The praise received was consistent and reflected high satisfaction. One person said, “it’s perfect here.” A relative said, “I know he is happy there as he is always keen and happy to get out of the car to get into the service.” Whilst we were not able to get detailed feedback from people, we observed interactions between people and staff. People were at ease with staff and enjoyed their company. Staff were caring, offered people choices, and treated people with dignity. However, practice around medicine handling did not support people’s independence and dignity. The kitchen facilities did not support independence and choice around the use of this area. People had access to health and social care services when they needed them. Professionals were very positive about the staff and the support they provided. One told us, “The Well House is a friendly, relaxed home with the residents at forefront of everything the support staff and management do.”