White Lodge Care Home

Updated 4 February 2025

Date of Inspection: 27 and 28 February 2025. White Lodge Care Home provides accommodation without nursing care for up to 25 people. Accommodation is arranged over two floors with stair and lift access. At the time of this inspection there were 18 people using the service. Our inspection was prompted by concerns received about the safety of people living at the home and how this was managed. At this inspection we assessed all the key questions.

At the last inspection the service was rated requires improvement with 4 breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found the provider had made sufficient improvements in processes related to staffing, recruitment and safe care and treatment and were no longer in breach of these regulations. However, we found improvements were still needed in some aspects of the service. There was an ongoing breach of the legal regulations in relation to good governance. Governance processes were not always effective and did not consistently support the provider or registered manager to maintain oversight of the service. For example, there were poor record keeping processes in relation to how lessons learned from incidents were shared with staff, improvement was needed for ‘as required’ medicines protocols and for the management of topical medicines, including creams and lotions. We found examples where care plans did not always provide enough information for staff on how to meet people’s needs, however staff we spoke with knew people well and the support they required. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Updated 4 February 2025

People and their relatives were overwhelmingly positive about the quality of their care. People’s relatives told us they felt confident their relative was safe. People and their relatives said the atmosphere at the service was welcoming, with a strong emphasis on dignity, choice and respect for the people who lived there. Relatives were positive about the care their loved ones received. They spoke highly of the quality of care and referred to staff as “excellent” and said they could not praise the staff highly enough. They told us staff knew their loved ones and provided the care and support they needed.

People and relatives we spoke with said they received good care from knowledgeable staff who treated them as individuals and said they felt safe and happy with the care and support they received. One person told us “I’ve never been in a place where I’ve felt so loved. I like doing my puzzles and sitting out in the garden. My [relative] lives nearby so comes and visits.” Relatives spoke positively regarding all aspects of the care and support staff provided. They said the staff team were kind, experienced and knew how to provide care and support in ways people preferred. One person’s relative said, “I would definitely recommend White Lodge. It gives me comfort to say, ‘I don’t need to go today, [name] will be OK with them’ and it has taken me a long time to get to that place.” Everyone we spoke with was confident of who to speak to if they had a concern.