Chilton Meadows Care Home

Updated 18 September 2024

This inspection of Chilton Meadows Care Home took place between 29 April and 20 May 2025. We undertook site visits on 29 April and 1 May 2025. Chilton Meadows Care Home is a care home providing accommodation, nursing and personal care for up to 120 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia and/or have nursing needs. At the time of our inspection there were 106 people using the service.

People were accommodated across 4 units named Beech, Munnings, Constable and Gainsborough. Beech supported people with nursing needs and who are living with dementia. Munnings supported people living with dementia. Constable supported people who required general nursing care and Gainsborough provided support for people in a residential setting. People’s experiences and the quality of care they received varied across the units.

Each unit had its own manager. Predominantly we found concerns at Munning and Beech Units. We also found these units had frequent leadership changes.

This inspection was prompted in part by concerns received about a lack of consistent leadership, people’s safe care and whether staffing levels and staff skill met the needs of people using the service safely.

During this inspection we found improvements were needed to the leadership and governance and a breach of the regulations relating to good governance and safe care and treatment. We found shortfalls in the management of risks associated with people’s care and well-being, and the safe management of medicines, the environment and cleanliness. This was a breach of the regulations relating to safe treatment. We received multiple concerns about the staffing levels and found the leadership and deployment of staff required improvement. The management team for the provider were transparent and responsive to the concerns and shortfalls we identified and were committed to making the required improvements.

While people and their relatives expressed general satisfaction with the care, support and treatment, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards.

Updated 18 September 2024

Feedback from people and their relatives was mixed.Whilst some people told us staff were friendly and kind, we observed some staff did not always communicate in a compassionate way and did not always engage with people.Where people could not directly tell us about their experiences, we used observation to assess whether they received good care. Overall, we observed staff were mainly kind and caring, but they were not always responsive to people’s needs. People at times had to wait for assistance. Some people and their relatives raised concerns there was not enough staff to support them which impacted the length of time they had to wait for their care needs to be met.

The service was trying to recruit staff into the housekeeping and activities roles. In the meantime, people were experiencing shortfalls in both areas. The service lacked a consistent provision of interesting activities to keep people physically and mentally active, especially those people living with dementia.