Tweedmouth House
Berwick-upon-Tweed, TD15 · 0.8 km
NursingDementia
Rated 3 years agocare home
CQC report explained · a residential care home
Turret Villa Retirement Home
Etal Road, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, TD15 2EG
Requires improvementpublished 27 August 2025, 12 months ago
Rated Requires improvement: inspectors found the service was not performing as well as it should and told it what to change.
The latest report, explained
What inspectors found, February 2024
Rated Requires Improvement; inspectors found unsafe medicines management, gaps in risk checks and training, and weak quality monitoring.
This was an unannounced focused inspection on 17 and 18 January 2024. Inspectors spoke with people, relatives and staff, observed care, and checked care, medicines, staff and management records.
The home had enough staff, people were protected from abuse, the building was maintained, and people generally felt cared for. However, medicines were not always stored, recorded or disposed of safely. Risk-control actions were not always followed, and some staff training was out of date.
The home was rated Requires Improvement overall for the areas inspected: Safe, Effective and Well-led. The overall rating fell from Good at the previous inspection. Caring and Responsive were not inspected during this visit, so their previous ratings carried over.
What inspectors praised
Enough staff
Inspectors found enough staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. People said staff responded when they used their call bells.
“There were enough staff on duty to care for people safely.” from the report
Protection from abuse
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Safeguarding incidents were investigated and reported to the relevant authorities.
“People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse.” from the report
Healthcare support
People could access healthcare services when needed. Staff made timely referrals and followed advice from healthcare professionals.
“People were supported to access healthcare services whenever they needed support.” from the report
Supportive culture
People enjoyed living at the home and felt listened to. Staff described the management team as supportive.
“There was a positive culture in the service. Staff said the management team were supportive.” from the report
What inspectors were concerned about
Medicines were not consistently safe
seriousSome medicines were insecure, out of date or not disposed of promptly. Stock records were wrong, and medicines audits were incomplete.
“Medicines were not always managed safely. Medicines were not always stored appropriately or disposed of safely.” from the report
Risk actions were missed
seriousSome planned actions to reduce risks were not happening or were not recorded. This included weighing people at risk of malnutrition and repositioning someone at risk of pressure sores.
“People had assessments in place which included actions to reduce risks, but the actions were not taking place.” from the report
Training was out of date
seriousSeveral staff were overdue training in areas including safeguarding, medicines, fire safety and end-of-life care. The training policy was also out of date.
“Multiple staff members were out of date for training courses including safeguarding, medicines, health and safety, fire safety, end of life and learning disabilities training.” from the report
Consent records were incomplete
seriousMental capacity assessments and best-interest decisions were not always recorded for restrictions such as movement sensors or wheelchair restraints.
“Mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions were not always in place.” from the report
Questions to ask them, based on this report
- 01What changes have been made to medicine storage, controlled drugs, stock checks, disposal and staff competency checks?
- 02How are you now making sure weekly weights, food and fluid monitoring, and repositioning plans are completed and reviewed?
- 03Which staff training is now up to date, especially medicines, safeguarding, fire safety and end-of-life care?
- 04How are mental capacity assessments and best-interest decisions recorded for movement sensors, wheelchair restraints and other restrictions?
- 05How will your quality checks show that incidents, medicines problems and care-plan issues are identified and corrected?
This was an unannounced focused inspection of Safe, Effective and Well-led; Caring and Responsive were not inspected and their previous ratings carried over. This explanation was written from the published report of 17 February 2024 by an AI system and checked against the report text: every quoted line appears in the report. It is a guide to the report, not a substitute for it. Read the full report on cqc.org.uk.
The story over the years
Every inspection of Turret Villa Retirement Home
5 rated inspections over 8 years: the service has slipped, from Good to Requires improvement.
- February 2024Requires improvementcurrent ratingdown from GoodSafe: Requires improvementEffective: Requires improvementCaring: GoodResponsive: GoodWell-led: Requires improvement
Read what inspectors found at Turret Villa Retirement Home →
- August 2020Goodup from Requires improvementSafe: GoodWell-led: Good
- June 2019Requires improvementstayed Requires improvementSafe: Requires improvementEffective: GoodResponsive: Requires improvementWell-led: Requires improvement
- March 2018Requires improvementdown from GoodSafe: Requires improvementEffective: Requires improvementCaring: GoodResponsive: GoodWell-led: Requires improvement
- December 2015GoodSafe: Requires improvementEffective: GoodCaring: GoodResponsive: GoodWell-led: Good
- January 2014
Report published without a new overall rating.
- February 2013
Report published without a new overall rating.
- April 2012
Report published without a new overall rating.
- February 2012
Report published without a new overall rating.
- January 2011
Registered with the Care Quality Commission on 18 January 2011.
Ratings and report dates from the Care Quality Commission. A service can also be visited without a new rating being published, so the timeline shows published inspections, not every contact the CQC has had with the service.
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