- Care home
Wainford House Residential Care Home
Assessment report published 13 February 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Wainford House Residential Care Home provides care for up to 28 people. There were 19 people living at the home at the time of the assessment.
We carried out site visits to the home on 17 September, 1 October and 8 October 2025, the remainder of the assessment was conducted offsite. The assessment was prompted due concerns received regarding the quality of the care and the safety of the environment.
Wainford House has been rated either inadequate or requires improvement since 2016, with repeated breaches of regulation relating to staffing, safe care and treatment and governance. Although the company has changed its legal entity there is no evidence of change of ownership, overall management or institutional change.The provider had failed to respond adequately to serious concerns raised by CQC, and where the provider had made improvements, they had failed to ensure they were embedded in practice and sustained. At this assessment we found the provider was in breach of the legal regulations relating to, safe care and treatment, safeguarding people from abuse and improper treatment, premises and equipment, person centred care, staffing and good governance. The overall rating is inadequate.
Risks to people's health, safety and well-being had not always been assessed, monitored or managed placing people at risk of avoidable harm. Care records lacked information and guidance for staff on how to keep some people safe.
The safety of the environment posed a risk to people’s health and safety. Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service placed an immeidate prohibition notice on 5 bedrooms because of serious health and safety concerns and took enforcement action during our inspection process. Areas of the home including toilets, bedrooms and items of equipment used to support people with were unclean or in a state which may cause injury.
The provider’s governance systems and processes were not used effectively to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. There was a lack of accurate checks and audits carried out across the home to identify and mitigate risks putting people at risk of harm.
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 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. In instances where CQC has begun a process of regulatory action, we may publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
Feedback from people and their relatives varied widely. One relative was so concerned about the quality of the service provided that they moved their family member to another service. They told us, “I just wanted to say that mum is a different person now [since the move], she has many activities, the carers are lovely, and mum is so happy.” However, another person said, “I have no issues with [relative’s] day to day care and that her needs are being met in a way that she presents as happy and content.”
Opinions also varied as to whether there was sufficient staff available to meet people’s needs. Some people raised concerns that senior staff were not available at weekends. For example, a relative told us, “They have a lack of staff now,” another relative said “I generally find that there are more staff on during the working weekand that either the manager or the assistant manager are in the office. At weekends there is rarely a member of management on site and the home feels like there are less staff on duty.”
Some people also raised concerns regarding their relative’s personal appearance and hygiene needs although others praised this aspect of the care. For example, a relative said, “I have made comments to staff on the state of [family member] nails in the past and often cut her fingernails myself. Sometimes, however, it can be weeks between my visits,” and another relative said, “Sometimes he looks a bit scruffy.”