- Care home
Middleton Manor Care Centre
Assessment report published 10 September 2025
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Middleton Manor Care Centre is a care home providing nursing and residential care to up to 83 adults who may be living with dementia, sensory impairments, mental health conditions or physical conditions. At the time of the assessment, there were 49 people living at the service. There are 2 floors to the service, providing nursing and residential care. Assessment activity started on 26 June 2025 and ended on 24 July 2025. This responsive assessment was carried out due to risks shared with CQC in relation to safety in the home including the safe management of medicines. It was a first rating assessment as the home was under a new registration. Our visit was unannounced.
We found breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safe and effective staffing, person-centred care, safeguarding and good governance.
We found that people’s medicines were not well managed. Safeguarding concerns were not always dealt with appropriately or in a timely manner. There were areas of the home that were not sufficiently clean. Staff were not always correctly deployed around the home and not all staff were fully trained to meet people’s individual needs. There had been recent changes of staff at all levels in the home, including senior staff and the management team, which impacted on the continuity and quality of people’s care. There were inconsistencies in people’s care records and we identified shortfalls in the delivery of person-centred care, particularly the provision of activities, management oversight and the audit systems in place.
Whilst the provider had identified some of the shortfalls we found, they had not been proactive in addressing these. Action plans were not robust and did not always allocate tasks to specific individuals or set a timescale for completion. Other issues had not been picked up on internal audits or had been flagged as completed when this was not always the case.
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. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment. Full information about CQC's regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
Relatives provided mixed feedback about the service. Some relatives were not happy with communication and told us they were not always aware of who was in charge or who the manager was. Most of the relatives we spoke with also felt at times the home needed more care staff. Relative’s comments included, "There seems to have been a lot of management changes recently with no accompanying communications. I worry how this effects the front-line care staff" and, “My opinion is that there rarely seems to be enough staff to meet the needs of the residents.” Relatives also told us there was a lack of stimulation for people and some reported observing times when people were unsupervised or unoccupied.
Some relatives expressed concerns about a lack of staff skills or knowledge in some areas, for example in relation to their family member’s health conditions and monitoring these. Some relatives expressed concerns about health appointments, they were unsure what appointments occurred and several commented on the lack of support for people to attend appointments or hospital.
Some relative raised issues about cleanliness and safety in the home and some felt decor could be improved to make the environment more homely.
Other relatives were happy with the care provided and some expressed they had seen some recent improvements in the home and hoped these would be sustained.