Herondale

Ratings

• Overall

  Inadequate

• Safe

  Inadequate

• Effective

  Requires improvement

• Caring

  Requires improvement

• Responsive

  Requires improvement

• Well-led

  Inadequate

Our view of the service

Herondale is a residential care home providing accommodation with personal care for up to 8 people. The service can provide care to older and younger people with mental ill health, people with learning disabilities and autistic people and those who misuse drugs and alcohol. At the time of the assessment, the service did not provide care or support to anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. There were 5 people living at the service at the time of our assessment.

We carried out our on-site assessment on 8 and 9 June 2026. We looked at key questions safe and well-led. We also followed up actions taken from the last assessment published September 2025 where the provider was in breach of the regulation in relation to, managing people’s medicine, premises and equipment, good governance and staffing.

The provider had made improvements to the environment and fire safety since the last assessment and was no longer in breach of this regulation. However, governance systems and audits had not significantly improved to identify or address the concerns we found at this and the previous assessment.

The provider continued to be in breach of the regulations in relation to the management of medicines and good governance. In addition, there were breaches in relation to safe care and treatment. We met with the provider to seek assurance and asked them to provide an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

This service remains 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 use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

People's experience of this service

People’s health and safety were not always monitored to ensure they were kept safe. For example, where accidents and incidents had taken place, these had not always been included in people’s care plans. Reviews of people’s risk assessments were not effective and did not identify the concerns we found. This means people were at risk of staff not knowing how to reduce the recurrence of incidents and accidents.

People’s care plans lacked detail about their life story and important information to inform their care and treatment. For example, 1 person’s care plan lacked information about their diagnosed mental health conditions. This means there is a risk staff might not fully understand how to support them during times of mental health decline.

People we spoke with told us they were happy with the care and support. One person said, “I am happy here, I can come and go when I want. Staff help me with cooking and my washing.”

The provider has made improvements to the environment removing restricted access to the kitchen. People told us they were happy with this. People also told us they were happy with the bathroom refurbishments and the improved cleanliness.