- Care home
Shirelodge Nursing Home
Assessment report published 7 September 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 22 July 2026 to 13 August 2026.
We carried out a comprehensive assessment in response to concerns we had about the service.
Shirelodge Nursing Home is a care home providing personal and nursing care. The service can support up to 65 older adults, including care for people with dementia, mental health and physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection the service was providing care for 58 people.
People were not consistently protected from avoidable harm because safety systems and processes were not always effective. Accidents, incidents and safeguarding concerns were not consistently managed, and opportunities to learn from safety events were sometimes missed.
Risks to people were not always appropriately assessed, monitored or mitigated. Although statutory compliance checks had been completed, environmental risks were not effectively managed, and infection prevention and control systems and process were not robust.
The provider was unable to demonstrate that staffing levels, competencies and skill mix consistently met the needs of people using the service. Medicines management and administration processes were also not sufficiently robust.
Leadership and organisational culture did not always promote the delivery of safe, high-quality care. Staff did not consistently feel able to raise concerns about safety. Governance and oversight systems were ineffective in ensuring the ongoing assessment, monitoring and improvement of the safety and quality of care provided.
The provider was found to be in breach of 5 legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, need for consent, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, good governance and staffing. Although the provider shared some assurances that action was being taken in relation to the findings during our assessment, further work was required to drive change and improvement.
The service has been rated inadequate overall. The 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 provides 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 have decided to take civic or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.
People's experience of this service
The feedback we received during the assessment was mixed. People and relatives we spoke with expressed that staff treated people with kindness, compassion and dignity. For example, a person told us, “Staff care.” Relatives also told us, “Staff are lovely, kind,” and, “I think they [staff] are lovely.” A final relative told us, “It’s a happy place, staff are lovely.”
Staff demonstrated an understanding of the people living in the home, including their preferences, likes, and dislikes. However, we received mixed feedback from people and relatives in relation to choice and control. For example, a person told us, “I tell them what I want to wear, I can have a shower, I just have to ask, I can choose”. Another person told us, “Staff are ok, they are patient there’s no rushing. I can’t be rushed”. However, a relative told us, “The only time restrictions is that you must leave by 1800 each day.”
Although leaders told us relatives were free to visit their loved one, they confirmed relatives were asked to visit between certain times of the day. We found this this did not promote the choice and control of people living at the home.
Some people could not directly tell us about their experience. We used our short observational framework for assessment (SOFI) to observe people’s experience of the care they received. This showed staff knew people well and they were kind and caring, however, it also showed us that further work was required to promoted people’s dignity.