Langwith Lodge Care Home

This service provides support to older people including people living with dementia.

Key findings
We carried out this assessment on 10 August 2026. This service was previously rated as good. We carried out this assessment to confirm whether the rating of good remains accurate. This report does not provide detailed information on areas where we found practice continues to meet a good standard. Instead, our findings focus on any areas where the service needs to improve or where we found exceptional practice. There were 45 people using this service at the time of the assessment.

People told us they were happy living at the service and felt safe. They consistently spoke positively about the care they received and said staff were well trained, knew what they were doing and treated them with kindness and respect. We observed many positive interactions between staff and people. Staff knew people well, supported people to make choices and promoted their independence. People had access to healthcare professionals when needed and were supported to maintain their wellbeing.
Staff understood how to recognise and report safeguarding concerns and knew how to raise concerns through whistleblowing procedures. The home was clean, odour free and people received support from staff who understood their needs. We observed a relaxed and unhurried mealtime experience, with people offered choice and supported in a respectful way.
However, governance systems had not always been effective in identifying and addressing environmental and health and safety risks. We found window restrictors had not been fitted with tamper-proof screws and health and safety audits had not identified this. We also identified water deadlegs that had not been addressed despite actions having been recommended within a previous legionella risk assessment. In addition, provider oversight had failed to identify risks associated with the external fire assembly point, fire escape routes, signage and lighting. We found further environmental issues including unlocked clinical waste bins and areas of the home that were worn or damaged, which could affect effective cleaning. Although immediate action was taken by the registered manager to address a number of concerns, these findings demonstrated that oversight and audit systems had not always been effective.
We also found examples where care records and risk assessments were not always accurate or sufficiently detailed. For example, one person’s care plan did not contain a specific risk assessment regarding their emotional wellbeing and another contained inconsistencies. These issues were addressed promptly during the assessment.

People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment with appropriate legal authority. In care homes, this can be done through a procedure called the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), which is part of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We checked whether the service was working within the principles of the MCA and how they managed DoLS within the service. We found that staff and management worked within the MCA. DoLS authorisations were appropriately applied for and overseen. People were not subject to unlawful or excessive restrictions they had choice, control and freedom over their lives.
At our previous inspection, the service was rated as good overall. We found the service continued to demonstrate many positive aspects of care, including caring staff, positive outcomes for people and a culture that promoted choice and independence. However, improvements were needed to strengthen governance arrangements and ensure environmental risks were consistently identified and acted upon.