Working at Southway
290 London Road, Bedford, MK42 0PX
Operated by Bedford Borough Council
42 bedsResidential homes
Workplace Score
3.6/10
AI analysis of latest data
Our AI workplace review
PlainSight AI Review
Last updated: 9 February 2026
Score: 3.6/10
Key Finding
"Staff feel supported with enough staffing for care needs and a positive culture praised by relatives, but poor injury investigations, lack of activities and ineffective audits hold it back."
Safety & Risk
2/10
✕
We found examples of when people had a bruise or cut, which were not effectively investigated. Either no investigation took place or no meaningful analysis was carried out... As part of this analysis no one in the management team were considering if a safeguarding referral needed to be raised.
Staff Culture
5/10
!
Staff told us they felt there was enough staff to meet people's care needs. People's relatives spoke well of the culture of the staff and management team.
Staffing Levels
4/10
!
We were not confident at certain times of the day, there was enough staff to promote peoples social experience at the home. But we found there were gaps of three and one month when the Disclosure and Baring Service (DBS) checks were completed and staff started at the home.
Training & Dev
/10
✕
Management
3/10
✕
The registered manager and provider were not carrying regular audits and checks on the quality of the care people experienced. Audits were not effective or not taking place to see what was happening in key areas and consider if changes needed to happen.
Programmes
2/10
✕
People spent regular periods on their own with no staff engagement. We were therefore not confident at certain times of the day, there was enough staff to promote peoples social experience at the home.
Points to consider
Accidents and injuries like bruises and cuts not investigated properly, with no safeguarding referrals made.
We found examples of when people had a bruise or cut, which were not effectively investigated... This did not trigger a safeguarding referral and actions to prevent this from happening again.
Medication not handled safely, with missing drugs, wrong signing times, and no plans for when to give antibiotics.
We also found one medicine which could not be accounted for and a member of staff had signed for a person's evening medicine in the daytime in error. Thirteen people had all been prescribed antibiotics... no one had any related care plans or protocols.
Managers not doing regular audits or quality checks, so issues like risks and staffing went unnoticed.
The registered manager and provider were not carrying regular audits and checks on the quality of the care people experienced. Audits were not effective or not taking place.
AI Generated
CQC Inspection Overview
CQC Inspection
Last inspected: September 2022
Requires improvement
Safe
!
Requires improvement
Effective
✓
Good
Caring
✓
Good
Responsive
✓
Good
Management Quality
Well-led: Requires improvement
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- Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection Data
- PlainSight staff reviews