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Mulberry CourtDorset

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Rated:GoodResidential

Mulberry Court

Mulberry Court, Common Mead Lane, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 4RE
01747822241
Care Type

Residential Care

Assessment date

7 November 2025

Provider

Salutem LD BidCo IV Limited

Beds

12 beds

Rating history

  1. GoodApr 2019
  2. GoodFeb 2026

Rated Good at every inspection since 2019.

Source: CQC inspection reports. Contains CQC data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Costs and who runs this home

Run by Salutem LD BidCo IV Limited, which runs 19 care homes in England: 3 rated Outstanding, 13 Good and 3 Requires Improvement.

Average care home fees in the South West: £1,170 a week for residential care and £1,472 for nursing care (2024-25 averages). Self-funders usually pay more. See our care home costs guide.

  • How to pay for a care home explains the council means test, what counts as capital and the funding you can ask to be assessed for.

About Mulberry Court

Mulberry Court is a residential care home in Dorset, providing personal care and accommodation for people with a learning disability and autistic people. The findings below set out the CQC's most recent assessment of the service.

Mulberry Court is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 12 people with a learning disability and autistic people. Inspectors found care plans, staff understanding of roles, and support with mental capacity decisions had improved, with enough suitably trained and safely recruited staff. People were involved in choices about their care and encouraged to maintain family relationships.

However, the CQC found ongoing shortfalls in medicines processes and governance, with the service remaining in breach of regulations in these areas. There had been high management turnover, affecting consistency, though a deputy manager had been recruited. Some relatives raised concerns about staffing levels and inconsistent activities.

Source: CQC assessment, 16 February 2026

Specialist Care

Learning disabilitiesOlder peoplePhysical disabilitiesSensory impairmentsYounger adults

Fees and availability

We have not verified a current weekly fee for this home. Ask for a written quote based on the room and care needed, including any extra charges.

Check current vacancies, the admission assessment and visiting arrangements directly with the home.

Care and inspection details

Checked against the CQC register on 21 September 2026. This is a check of published information, not a visit to the home.

Registered service
Care home service without nursing
Registered capacity
12 places — this is not a vacancy count
Registration checked
Registered · SP8 4RE

Registered care categories

Caring for adults over 65 yrs; Caring for adults under 65 yrs; Caring for children; Learning disabilities; Physical disabilities; Sensory impairment.

These describe the registration. The home must assess whether it can meet the individual person's needs and whether a place is available.

CQC ratings in more detail

Overall rating shown by CQC: Good.

Assessment published 16 February 2026. Assessment date recorded: 7 November 2025.

Read CQC's assessment overview

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 16 February 2026. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

Mulberry Court is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 12 people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. At the time of our assessment, 11 people received a regulated service.We undertook this assessment to follow up on breaches of regulations identified at their previous assessment and to review the previous rating of requires improvement. This assessment reviewed the quality statements in the key questions safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led and included a site visit on the 12 November 2025. Off site assessment activity took place between 13 and 27 November 2025.We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgments about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

At our last assessment, we found the quality of care plans had improved. We found significant improvements in medicines practice, but areas of medicines processes still needed rectification.

The provider made some improvements in compliance with The Mental Capacity Act. Safeguarding systems were not embedded, and staff had not always recognised when abuse or neglect had occurred nor responded quickly to concerns. There was a lack of consistency in how the service was managed, and not all staff understood their roles and responsibilities, reporting of incidents, risks, issues and concerns was inconsistent. Our last inspection identified three breaches of regulations.

At this assessment we found care plans included information on how to support people’s emotional needs.

Staff understood their roles and responsibilities and reported incidents, risks and any issues or concernspromptly and appropriately.

Staff liaised with other health and social care professionals and those important to people to ensure decisions were made in people’s best interests where they did not have capacity regarding their care and support needs.

There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. The provider made sure staff received training and regular supervision to maintain high-quality care.

Staff were recruited safely. Recruitment systems and processes were robust.

Staff involved people in their care provision and supported them to make choices about aspects of daily life, and people were encouraged to maintain relationships with their relatives.

We identified four environmental safety concerns, however the manager confirmed during our assessment the areas of concern we raised had been actioned.

There were still areas of medicines processes that needed improvement and medication audits only included medicine stock. This was raised with the manager and addressed immediately.

There had been a high turnover of management staff at the service, however the interim manager would apply for dual registration until a permanent manager was recruited. A deputy manager had recently been recruited, and the service was recruiting to a senior staff vacancy.

At this assessment we found the provider remained in breach of the regulations relating to safe care and treatment and good governance.

Safe
Good
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Requires Improvement

Questions prompted by these ratings

  • Well-led: What has changed in management, checks and oversight since this rating?

These are questions for your visit, not a claim about conditions today.

Read Mulberry Court's CQC record and reports.

Contains Care Quality Commission information under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Ratings and registration details can change after the date checked.

5 Questions to Ask on Your Visit

When visiting Mulberry Court, consider asking...

  1. 1.What happens if my relative's care needs increase significantly -- will they have to move?
  2. 2.How do you handle concerns or complaints from families?
  3. 3.What does the monthly fee cover and what will cost extra?
  4. 4.How do you keep families informed about their relative's day-to-day wellbeing?
  5. 5.What happens if my relative is unhappy here?

5 Things to Look For on Your Visit

When you visit Mulberry Court, look out for...

  1. 1.Do staff greet residents by name and stop to chat?
  2. 2.Are residents dressed, up and occupied, or sitting alone in front of a TV?
  3. 3.Does the home smell fresh and feel clean without being clinical?
  4. 4.Do residents look comfortable and at ease, or anxious and withdrawn?
  5. 5.Does the manager answer your questions openly or deflect?

Could the NHS fund Mulberry Court's fees?

The average nursing home costs £1,535 per week. That's £79,820 a year. NHS Continuing Healthcare could cover all of it. No means test, no contribution from you.

Location

Mulberry Court, Common Mead Lane, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 4RE

CQC Logo

Mulberry Court

CQC overall rating

Good

Assessment date: 7 November 2025

View full inspection report
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