Hi Everyone, this may sound silly but the care home my mum is in is fab, very small, carers lovely and she is comfortable there. However, I arrived the weekend before last to find a notice up at the downstairs entrance advising of visiting times . My mum has been there since March and no such visiting times existed prior to the notice going up, no one told me about the introduction of visiting times and nor was there any consultation of residents family members about this. Consultation or notification would not have been an onerous task as there are only 5 full time residents with another 3 rooms for respite (those additional 3 rooms having recently been added). When querying this with the staff on duty they had no idea. I sent an email of concern to the home the following Tuesday advising I would welcome a meeting with the management team to discuss this only to receive a phone call within 20 mins of sending the email to say they had had to introduce this as one of the people in respite had received visitors after 8.30pm and my mum and other residents had already or were getting ready for bed and they did not want the residents disturbed. My concerns are as follows (a) this is my mums home, it is not an institution or a hospital and the visiting time restrictions are around mealtimes (b) I have previously visited mum and been there when it is time for meals and the staff have asked if she wanted to take her meal in the lounge so I could be with her (c) The notice states that it is for "protected meal times" however when I searched the CQC for this phrase I could not find it anywhere. d) Guidance from the CQC and Age UK seem to indicate that the imposition of "visiting times" are discouraged. I would welcome any guidance, (Official if possible and where I can find documentation to read and unofficial for those who have had experience of this) I want to make this very clear though, I love the home and the staff and my mum is very well looked after, my main gripe is that this approach should have been discussed with the residents relatives about the impact this will make on visiting them. Already this wk I found myself within 200m of my mums home as 12.05pm....I could not wait until 1.30pm to visit her so did not end up seeing her. Thank you all