The Vale Residential Care Home

Ratings

• Overall

  Inadequate

• Safe

  Inadequate

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Inadequate

Our view of the service

The Vale is a residential care home providing support to older people living with dementia. The service can support up to 28 people, there were 26 people living at the service at the time of the inspection. This inspection was carried out on 6 and 7 October 2025. We undertook this inspection as concerns had been received that related to safeguarding concerns.

We found that risks to people were not being well managed. Risks relating to epilepsy management, choking and skin integrity had not always been managed safely. Staff lacked knowledge on how to report incidents of concern to ensure that action could be taken to understand and mitigate risks to people. Systems and processes to ensure that safeguarding and incidents were recorded and reported appropriately were not robust. There were not sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. Governance systems had not been effective in identifying and addressing the concerns identified within this inspection.

There was a closed culture at the service. A "closed culture" is a poor culture that can lead to harm, including human rights breaches and abuse. We found a poor culture across the entire service, which had not been recognised or addressed by the provider.

We found significant shortfalls across the service and identified breaches of 4 regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.

This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.

People's experience of this service

While most the people and relatives we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care and treatment, our assessment found care did not meet the expected standards.

Relatives gave mixed feedback about staff. Relatives praised some staff as being ‘kind’ and ‘caring’, one relative telling us, “I’ve seen nothing but kindness.” However, some relatives fed back concerns about other staff that they were task focused, and not as supportive to their loved ones. Relatives also told us they were aware of fractions within the staff team. This had a negative impact on the support people received. One relative fed back that there was a lack of engaging activities for people living with dementia.