The Laurels and The Limes Care Home

Updated 10 June 2026

Date of Assessment: 7 July 2026 to 13 July 2026. The service is a nursing home providing support to older people, younger people and people living with dementia. The service has 2 care homes on the same site, 1 known as The Laurels and the other known as The Limes. We carried out an assessment looking at the quality statements relating to safe, caring, responsive and well led key questions. Our decision to inspect the service was due to concerns we received regarding freedom to speak up, and personal care and to check improvements since our last assessment. At our last assessment the service was rated requires improvement. At this inspection the service remained requires improvement. We identified a breach of regulation regarding risk management. We will ask the provider for an action plan to demonstrate how they will action our concerns.

Risks associated with people’s care were mainly identified but not always managed to keep people safe. We identified concerns regarding moving and handling techniques, weight loss and lack of monitoring around nutrition and hydration and pressure care. The interim manager was aware of these concerns and had taken action to improve the service. We identified some concerns with the environment, and the interim manager informed us of action they had taken to resolve them. The service was predominantly clean; however, we identified some minor infection control issues which the interim manager addressed. People received their medicines as prescribed. A member of the provider’s quality team was supporting staff to improve recording of medicine stock.

During the assessment we observed staff interacting with people and found staff were kind and caring but often task focused which led to care not always being person centred. The provider had a complaints procedure and there were opportunities for people to feedback about the service.

The provider had experienced some changes in the management team and at the time of our inspection an interim manager was in post. The current management team had identified issues and responded to whistle blowing concerns in a positive way. People, relatives and staff commented on the improvements they had noticed since the interim manager had been in post. These changes occurred at the beginning of June 2026, which meant there were outstanding actions to address which the current management team had not had the opportunity to resolve. The current management team were utilising the provider’s governance systems to assist them in improving the home. However, systems and processes required embedding into practice.

Updated 10 June 2026

We spoke with people and their relatives, and most people felt safe living at the home. One relative said, “Yes, I think [family member] is safe.” One person said, “They [staff] take care of me like [my family] did. I am safe here like I was at home.” Another person said, “I feel safe, it’s a nice atmosphere [at the home].” However, 1 relative said, “I worry about [family member] all the time and wonder if they are getting properly looked after.” Most people and relatives felt there were sufficient staff to assist them. However, some people and relatives did not have the same experience. One relative said, [Family member] needs a hoist and 2 staff [to assist them] and there often aren’t enough staff to get [family member] in and out of bed.” One person said, “There are enough staff, but when it’s busy, they [staff] do appear a bit short staffed.” People were happy with the cleanliness of the home. One relative said, “They [staff] keep it [the home] lovely and clean. The vacuum cleaner is out all the time.” People told us they received their medicines in a timely way and staff explained what their medicines were prescribed for.

People and relatives were complimentary about staff. One person said, “They [staff] are kind and passionate about the job.” One relative said, “Staff are absolutely brilliant.” People told us staff respected their privacy and dignity. One person said, “They [staff] always knock [on my bedroom door] but they don’t need to because the door is always open.” People told us they had choices about their life. One person said, “I can stay in bed and have a lie in if I want one. I did the other day because I watched the England match though the night, so I got up late.”

People had access to healthcare professionals such as GP and district nurses. One person said, “The district nurse comes every other day to dress my legs. I also get my hair done whenever I need it.” Another person said, “I always receive a doctor when I need one. Somebody came recently to my feet [podiatrist].” Another person said, “There is a doctor who comes every Wednesday morning. The hairdresser comes every Tuesday.”

People and relatives described a significant improvement in the atmosphere of the home in the past few weeks. Monthly resident and relative meetings took place where concerns and suggestions could be raised. People told us they would know how to raise concerns if they needed to. One person said, “I know who the manager is, [manager] is new. If I was worried about anything I would go to [manager].”

People and relatives told us staff were kind and caring. One person said, “Everyone [staff] is brilliant.” Another person said, “The staff are nice and they try to help.”

Where people had specific communication needs, we observed interactions between them, their peers and staff. We also usedthe Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We observed lunch being served in both dining rooms and found the experience to be disorganised and badly planned. People sat at tables waiting for their meals to arrive for a long time and when it arrived people complained about it. One person said, “The presentation is poor and that matters. We get a lot of chicken and mince we also get a lot of sponge. Treacle sponge, jam sponge, ginger sponge. We could do with more variety.”We raised these concerns with the manager who assured us they were in the process of improving the mealtime experience.