The Firs Care Home

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 9 June 2025. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

Date of Assessment: 28 May 2025. The Firs Care Home is a care home for persons who require nursing or personal care for up to 32 older people. At the time of this assessment there were 25 people using the service.

Following our last assessment in March 2025 we served the provider a Warning Notice for a breach of regulation for safe care and treatment. This assessment was completed to check compliance with the Warning Notice. Improvements were found at this assessment and the provider was no longer in breach of this regulation.

At our last assessment we found staff had propped fire doors open with various objects such as foot stools and wheelchairs. This meant in the event of a fire the doors would not automatically close. At this assessment we found the required improvement had been made. We observed where fire doors were being held open this was using safe fitted door guards. This meant should the fire alarms sound, doors would automatically close which would help to keep people safe.

At our last assessment we found windows were not always being used safely. Window restrictors had been removed which meant windows were open wide enough for people to get in or out of the building. At this assessment we saw the required improvement had been made and windows were attached to their restrictors which meant they could not be fully opened wide. This meant risks of people climbing out of the window or intruders coming in through the window were mitigated.

The home manager told us they had effective systems to replace batteries in the fitted door guards and management were carrying out unannounced out of hours visits. Staff also showed us they were completing regular checks of the fire doors throughout the day to monitor safety.

Whilst we have seen the required improvement for the safe environments quality statement, at our last assessment we found shortfalls in other quality statements for the key question safe. For example, we reported on shortfalls in safeguarding and staffing. The safe key question remains rated requires improvement and we will assess all of the other quality statements at our next assessment.