- Care home
The Rookery Care Home
Assessment report published 21 September 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 25 August – 10 September 2026.
The Rookery Care Home is a residential care home service providing support to older people, people with physical disabilities and people living with dementia. This service is registered to accommodate up to 30 people. At the start of the assessment the service was providing care and support to 20 people at the location. This assessment was unannounced which means the provider was not told an assessment was going to be starting beforehand.
The service was previously inspected and rated requires improvement overall, following an assessment carried out on 17 December 2025 (published 12 February 2026).
Throughout our assessment of The Rookery Care Home, we identified shortfalls in the way the service was managed. We identified concerns relating to the environment, safe care and treatment, management of medicines, management of risks, fit and proper persons employed, management of the service and governance. We found the provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to safe care and treatment and good governance.
We identified several environmental hazards throughout the service, alongside infection prevention and control issues including the cleanliness of the building. Records showed staff had out-of-date training, and some had not completed essential training in key areas required to keep people safe. The environment did not support the needs of people living with dementia, as it lacked appropriate dementia friendly features. There was limited use of clear signage or orientation aids which would help people maintain their independence.
Quality assurance processes were ineffective. Audits did not identify important shortfalls in care quality or safety, and risks were neither fully assessed nor adequately managed. Strategic priorities for improvement were unclear. This demonstrated a breakdown in the feedback and improvement cycle and limited the service’s ability to make meaningful, sustained progress. Prompt action to address issues was taken during and after our assessment of this service.
We served a warning notice to the provider of The Rookery on 7 January 2026, for failing to meet the regulations relating to good governance.
At this inspection, we found the provider had made improvements including key improvements to the safety of the environment relating to infection prevention and control, safety of equipment including fire evacuation equipment, and ensuring exits used in an emergency were accessible. Medicines management and systems for the oversight of the service has also improved. The provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
People's experience of this service
We used engagement with people and observations to assess people's experience of living at The Rookery Care Home as previous feedback had been positive. We saw that people were spoken to respectfully and staff and people knew each other well and enjoyed a positive relationship and engaged with each other in a way that demonstrated this. All staff interacted positively with people and visitors, they were warm and friendly. We saw the chef speaking with people about choices for their meals and accommodating requests for things they particularly liked., they also checked people were enjoying their food during mealtimes. There was a relaxed approach to routines and people could choose where to eat, when to get up and when they wished to go to their room or other parts of the home to relax or enjoy a quieter area of the property. People were provided with a drink as and when they wished to have one as well as snacks in line with any dietary requirements. People appeared relaxed and happy and were well presented. Where people required equipment, including pressure reliving equipment, we saw this was in place or accessible. Staff and the management team told us they felt people were like family to them and this showed in their interactions and the way people responded to them.