- Care home
The Fairways
Assessment report published 1 September 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 16 to 22 July 2026. The Fairways is a care home providing accommodation with personal care for up to 60 people. It provides care to adults over 65 years, people with physical disabilities, sensory impairment, dementia and people with mental health conditions. At the time of this assessment there were 56 people using this service.
Governance systems were not effective in assessing and monitoring quality and safety. Quality checks were not always identifying shortfalls and driving improvement where needed. Provider systems were not always being followed to make sure actions were taken when people had incidents or accidents. This meant there were times where follow up actions to help keep people safe were not taken.
The environment was in need of maintenance and decoration. Furniture was not always fit for purpose as there were many cushions missing and we observed some items were badly stained. The service was not always clean and free from odours.
Staff had been recruited safely and trained, however there was not enough of them to meet people’s needs. New staff had an induction when they commenced work and refresher training and support was regularly provided. Agency staff were being used but checks for their suitability and training were not being consistently carried out.
Care plans were not always having effective checks for quality. Information recorded was at times inaccurate or conflicting. Risk management plans had not always been put in place to help staff know how to provide safe care and support. Medicines had not always been managed safely.
Complaints had been recorded and responded to within the provider timescales. People were asked for their views about the care and support; however, actions had not always been taken to respond to people’s feedback.
There was not a registered manager in post. There had been changes in management prior to our assessment which had confused people and relatives about who was managing the service. An acting home manager was in place whilst the provider recruited a new registered manager. Staff said they enjoyed their work and could approach the temporary manager with any ideas or concerns.
We found 2 breaches of legal regulations for premises and equipment and good governance.
People's experience of this service
Feedback from people and relatives about the service was mixed in all areas. Some people enjoyed living there, enjoyed the food and said their rooms had been cleaned. However, other people said the food was not good and their room was not cleaned regularly. Some people said improvement was needed with the environment.
People agreed the staff were caring, but most said there were not enough of them. One relative told us, “The carers are kind but there aren’t enough of them, so they are always under pressure, and this shows.” People said there was not a consistent team of staff supporting them and at times they had to wait for staff. This was also reflected in the provider’s monitoring of call bell response times, which showed a recurring number of call bells remaining unanswered for longer than the provider’s target response time of 5 minutes. This meant people did not always receive support when they needed it.
Meetings for people to attend had not been planned effectively so that people could attend easily. People did not know who the manager was and we found people had not been told formally about management changes.