Last updated: 10 February 2026
"A well established staff team with long service creates strong bonds, but recent management instability weakened relative communication."
Whilst safeguarding issues were recorded and reviewed, this could benefit from further analysis work to show how measures taken reduced the risk of reoccurrence; the manager told us they would act on this feedback.”
A staff member told us, “I love working there [Fern Lodge], it is a nice environment. Staff are well looked after; people are well looked after.”
The staff team is well established, with most been in post over five years; this creates a strong and bonded team that is invested in providing a gold standard service.
People were supported by staff who had undertaken training in how to support them. This included specialist training in areas such as understanding epilepsy, and how to support people with a learning disability and or autistic people.
A new manager had recently started at the time of our assessment; previous manager left October 2024, interim communication with relatives was weaker.
Some [people] go out for lunch, dinner, dance club, swimming; they have a choice. In the home we have in-house activities like dancing, singing, baking and painting.”
No permanent manager for several months until recently, so communication with relatives dropped off.
There has not been a permanent regular manager for several months. When the previous manager was in post all was okay. The stand in manager was so busy with things, we didn’t get contact like we used to have unless there was a crisis.”
Activities are basic like outings to swimming and in-house baking or painting, with no specialist programmes or coordinator.
A staff member told us, “Some [people] go out for lunch, dinner, dance club, swimming; they have a choice. In the home we have in-house activities like dancing, singing, baking and painting.” A professional... “I am not sure how much differentiation there is to the activities that are available to the residents (people).”
Some safety records like behaviour charts were not always fully clear on staff actions taken.
further work was needed to ensure Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence (ABC) records were always clear on action taken by staff.”
AI Generated
Last inspected: May 2025
Management Quality
Well-led: Requires improvement
Direct feedback from current and former employees

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