"I was paralysed for weeks not knowing what to do. The stage finder showed me exactly where we were and what came next. It was the first time I'd felt in control since the diagnosis."
SB
Sandra B.
Daughter · Manchester
Verified reader
“
"The care home scores gave me something concrete to show my brother when we disagreed. It ended a three-week family argument in one conversation."
MH
Michael H.
Son · Bristol
Verified reader
“
"A rating won't tell you she's happy — that line stopped me cold. It's exactly what I was afraid of. The way this site digs into the actual reports is unlike anything else I found."
JP
Janet P.
Daughter-in-law · Leeds
Verified reader
Your pathway
Where are you right now?
Every family's situation is different — but the stages are universal. Find yours to get the exact next steps, checklists, and care home guidance that matters right now.
Stage 01
Is this really happening?
You've had a diagnosis or serious concern. You need to understand what dementia actually means for your family.
Most directories show you a list. We show you what we found.
Most care home directories show you a name and an address.
We read the CQC inspection report in full before any home appears here. We went through the reviews left by adult children over the past three years, looking at the specific things people mentioned: staffing levels, how concerns were handled, whether the dementia care was genuinely specialist or just a label on a brochure. We checked what each home says about itself on its own website, then checked that against what regulators actually found. Then we built a rating from all of it, weighted around the things adult children told us matter most when they are making this decision.
We read the full report, not just the headline rating. Requires Improvement in one domain matters. We surface it.
Reviews
What adult children actually said.
We read the reviews, each one, not the average score. Staff consistency, activity provision, how concerns were handled.
own claims
We checked what they say about themselves.
Then compared it to what the CQC found. The gap between the two is often the most useful thing we can show you.
Our rating
One score. Multiple sources.
Staffing, safety, dementia specialism, activity provision, responsiveness. Weighted by what adult children tell us matters most.
Find top-rated homes near you
Enter any UK postcode to see assessed and rated homes in that area.
What this means for you
You are not browsing a list of homes that paid to be listed. You are reading an independent assessment of each one, what was found, what stands out, and what question to ask before you book a visit.
No homes pay to rank higher Independent assessment only
The dementia care guide that should have existed years ago.
"She's well looked after." That's all you want to be able to say
The dementia care guide that should have existed years ago
Every stage. Every question. Every decision you'll face, covered plainly, honestly, and in one place.
Whether you're just starting to notice changes or you're comparing care homes this weekend, the guide meets you where you are.
Your dashboard, your pace
Track visits. Compare homes. Record notes.
The dashboard lets you manage the complexity at your own pace, on your own terms, whether that's an intense week of research or a quick check-in six months later. Getting this right matters.
This is the only place that helps you do it properly.
A shortlist you can trust
We read the reviews, the CQC reports, and the websites. We removed every home with damaging feedback, poor ratings, or no transparency.
What's left is a shortlist of the most trusted homes in the country, ranked not by what inspectors check, but by what families consistently say matters: staff warmth, cleanliness, activities, food, and whether Mum is genuinely happy.
The questions you haven't thought of yet
For every shortlisted home, we craft a custom questionnaire around the things that really matter.
We focus on the questions that reveal what happens when no one is watching, and whether this home isn't just good, but right
You've never seen a guide like this. Because until now, there wasn't one.
The six-stage structure — vital
The fastest way to focus is to know exactly where you are.
Six stages
Each stage is mapped to the decisions that matter most right now, not the ones that matter later.
Select your stage
choose from the selection above and go straight to what applies to you. Nothing else. No wading through content written for someone at a different point.
The map changes as your situation changes
When you move to the next stage, your resources move with you.
Dementia care is often a fifteen-year process. Every stage has different priorities, different decisions, and different things that cannot wait. Most adult children spend months managing the wrong things because nobody told them which stage they were at.
Most adult children tell us they wished they had started here. The ones who did saved months.
Not advice. The exact next steps — for your stage.
Every stage comes with a fast-action checklist built from experience across 3,602 care homes. Not editorial opinion. Not government guidance. What families who have been at your stage actually did, and what they wished they had done sooner.
Stage-specific checklists
They tell you what to do first, what can wait, and what has a closing window you may not know about.
Printable and portable
Take the checklist to the GP appointment, the solicitor, the care home visit. It does the work of explaining your situation so you don't have to.
Built from real family reviews
not regulatory frameworks. The twelve questions families say actually matter. The three legal protections most adult children miss. The four-week settling-in tracker that tells you whether everything is working before a problem becomes a pattern.
One step at a time
The checklist shows you what is in front of you. Not everything that is coming. Not everything that has already passed.
The families who used these checklists stopped guessing. That is what they told us afterwards.
The exact steps you need
The record nobody else keeps – exclusive
Everything that matters. In one place. Always yours.
A private care journal
Structured, searchable, unlimited. Every observation, every conversation, every decision. Dated and retrievable when you need it.
A medication log and incident record
Formatted for clinical use. One click produces a GP summary, a social worker briefing, and a care home handover document. In plain language. In the format each person needs.
Monthly pattern analysis.
Our AI reads your entries and reports back, what it noticed, what it might mean, and one thing worth watching next month. Not a chatbot. A monthly letter from someone who has been reading your notes carefully.
The record gets more valuable over time.
At year three, it contains what no clinician, no care home, and no solicitor has: a complete, dated, evidential account of how your parent's condition has changed, in your words.
One-to-one support
Available when the record alone is not enough. A call with a DCC advisor who reads what you have written before picking up the phone.
Your GP has clinical notes. The care home has its own logs. You have a worry. None of these talks to each other, and none of them holds what you actually know: what changed last Tuesday, what was said in March, what was promised in January.
There is no other product in dementia care that does this. That is not marketing. It is simply true.
Everything in one place
Robin's Pick • 2026 Dementia Awards
The Dementia care homes where families said: "She's well looked after"
That one sentence appears more than any other in positive family reviews. Not "five-star facilities." Not "outstanding CQC rating." Six plain words that mean everything.
We analysed thousands of verified family reviews, the questions families asked before choosing, and the positive observations they recorded after moving in. Then we scored every home against the things that actual families, not inspectors, not operators, said made the difference: staff warmth, honest communication, genuine activity, clean rooms, and the feeling that nothing was too much trouble.
These are the homes that scored highest. Not because they had the glossiest brochure. Because the families who live with the decision every day said so.
The full awards list covers every region in England, with scores, review data, and the specific strengths each home was recognised for.
The wall comes down. Briefly. Then it goes back up
A song comes on. A photograph appears. The cat settles onto the sofa. And the person you thought you'd lost looks at you with recognition, real recognition, for the first time in weeks. You didn't imagine it. It happened. And it can happen again.
This book exists because of that moment.
They're still in there, behind the wall. A song, a scent, a touch, that's all.
Twelve activities. No prescriptions. No specialist training.
Music. Photographs. Routine. Nature. Movement. Making things. Words. Animals. Stillness. Community. Technology. And a final chapter about you, because you matter in this, too. Each activity is evidence-based, explained by stage, and uses items you already have at home.
The filing cabinets are intact. The records are all there. You just need the right key.
Written for the person who noticed first
You pushed for the GP appointment. You're the one everyone looks to for answers. This book doesn't talk down to you or wrap hard truths in cotton wool. It tells you what the science says, what other families have found, and what you can do today, whether you're caring at home or visiting a care home.
The manual nobody gave you. Until now.
Dementia care gifts that help
The Thoughtful Gift That Makes a Difficult Day Easier
The things that make the greatest difference to someone living with dementia are rarely the most obvious ones. They are the things that ease the day, that give a carer a moment to breathe, or give the person they care for a moment of calm or quiet joy. Every item here was chosen because it works and because it reduces stress for everyone in the room.
