The Meadows

Updated 6 July 2026

Date of assessment: 3 August to 19 August 2026. We visited The Meadows 3 times during the assessment process. The Meadows is a service supporting 7 people with an acquired brain injury. The Meadows are registered with The Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide support to people with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.

We did not inspect against CQC's ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance as the service was not supporting autistic people or people with a learning disability. The assessment was promoted by the aged rating of the service.

We found the service was in breach of legal regulations in relation to dignity and respect, safe care and treatment and good governance. The provider did not have an effective governance system in place to identify areas of improvement, we found medicines expiry dates were not checked and Controlled Medicines were not recorded in line with national protocols, there were no general risk assessments in place for the service. Staff worked prolonged shifts and could sleep on duty, this put people at risk. The service did not respect people’s dignity, we found kitchen cupboards padlocked with no risk assessments in place, times for people to be able to smoke or vape were on a poster on the communal activities board, we observed people going to a shelf by the door of the office when their medicine was due, staff then dispensed the medicines and placed it on the shelf for people to take from. People had baby monitors in place to be used at night, we found these monitors were on in the staff office during the day. People were not always supported safely in line with their individual needs including night checks not being documented, people’s mental capacity assessments not completed in line with information we found in people’s care plans.

Whilst the provider responded to the concerns identified during the assessment, we could not be assured that improvements had been fully embedded or that effective oversight arrangements were in place to sustain these changes and reduce the risk of a reoccurrence.

However, staff told us that they felt supported by the leadership team. We observed kind and compassionate interactions between the people living at The Meadows and the staff who supported them. Relatives felt that their loved ones were looked after by staff who cared.

Updated 6 July 2026

We spoke with people and their relatives, and people felt safe living at the service and were positive about the support provided by the staff. They told us that staff were supportive and a person told us, “When I need staff they come quickly.”

We observed staff supporting people to develop their independence through daily activities. People told us they had opportunities to prepare meals, go to the gym and access the community for meals out and the cinema. A person told us, “The staff know me, and we go out in the car.”

Relatives told us that staff are kind and supportive, their loved ones have the opportunity for lots of activities and accessing the wider community, managers were accessible and all relatives we spoke with felt that their relative was safe and well looked after.

A relative told us, ““I feel that [person] is happy and safe at The Meadows. They keep an eye on [person]. They understand [person] and the carers are kind and caring. They are friendly, lovely people, and [person] helps them to make the food. [person] enjoys it too.