I did look at the Care Quality Commission’s website before I decided to move my mum into Ashlands–but I didn’t look carefully enough. You obviously need to look at the most recent report–but, of course, it’s only a snapshot of what was found on the day or two of the inspectors’ visits. You need the bigger picture. How has the home done over time? Does it reliably and consistently give good care? You can judge for yourself. Here are the results of the CQC inspections of Ashlands over the last 4 years-you can click on the date to go to a copy of each of the reports:

• October 2012.  FAILED: “Ashlands was not meeting one or more essential standards. Action is needed”
• March 2013. FAILED: Ashlands fails to meet 2 of the 6 standards—”The provider was failing to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of people using the service because they had not take appropriate steps to ensure there were sufficient numbers of qualified, skilled and experienced staff.”
• June 2013. PASSED Ashlands re-inspected on the standards that were failed and finally passes
• September—October 2013 The quality of my mum’s care is so poor that I move her after only 2 moths at Ashlands. I pass the details of my concerns on to the CQC, triggering a further inspection and eventually  win a case against PrimeLife in the Smalls Claims Court.
• February 2014. PASSED Ashlands meets the standards—but only after introducing a whole range of changes to the practices and procedures that led to my mum’s poor care (the new manager and the CQC inspectors refer directly in the report to the changes that were made)
• July 2016. FAILED  Ashlands rated as “requiring improvement” with the comment that “Systems and processes did not effectively assess, monitor and improve the services provided”. Which more or less summarises my experience of the home and the problems which contributed to the poor care my mum received. Safety in relation to the administration of medications was also criticized in this latest report.

So reach your own conclusion about the consistency and quality of the care provided at Ashlands