Prince of Wales Nursing Home

What families say

Based on 3 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership60
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-11-23 · Report published 2018-11-23 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating under Safe, suggesting that at the time of the visit, safety standards met the expected threshold. The home is registered to provide nursing care for up to 27 people, which means a registered nurse must be on duty at all times u2014 a baseline safety requirement. No specific concerns about staffing levels, medicines management, falls prevention, or infection control were flagged in the published summary. However, the published report provides no detail about what inspectors actually observed or tested in relation to safety, and no staffing numbers are given.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating under Safe is reassuring as a baseline, but for a dementia specialist nursing home, the detail behind that rating matters more than the headline. Research consistently shows that safety in dementia care is most at risk overnight, when staffing is thinner and residents may be more disoriented. The 57% of families in DCC review data who highlight staff attentiveness as a priority are really asking a safety question: is someone watching, responding, and present? Without published detail on night staffing ratios, agency cover, or how the home logs and learns from falls or incidents, you cannot answer that question from this report alone. Ask directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research / Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios are the single most under-scrutinised safety variable in dementia care inspections, and that agency staff reliance u2014 even at low levels u2014 significantly reduces consistency of care for people with dementia who depend on familiar faces.","watch_out":"When you visit, ask: 'How many registered nurses and care staff are on duty overnight, and what proportion of shifts in the last three months were covered by agency staff?' A confident, specific answer is a positive sign; vagueness is a reason to probe further."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good, indicating that care planning, staff training, and health monitoring met inspection standards at the time. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies staff should hold appropriate dementia-specific training. No detail is available about care plan content, GP access arrangements, medication reviews, or how food and nutritional needs are assessed and met. The published summary does not include any examples of individual care plans, training records reviewed, or clinical outcomes observed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a parent living with dementia, 'effective' care means more than ticking training boxes u2014 it means staff who understand how dementia changes the way a person communicates, eats, and experiences pain. Around 20% of families in DCC review data specifically mention healthcare and dementia-specific care as the things that give them confidence. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans need to be living documents, updated after significant changes and reviewed with family input u2014 not filed away after admission. Food quality is also a genuine marker of care: a kitchen that understands texture modification, familiar flavours, and the importance of a relaxed mealtime is a kitchen that understands dementia. None of this detail is available from this inspection.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans written at admission and rarely updated are one of the most common contributors to avoidable deterioration in people living with dementia, particularly around nutrition, pain recognition, and behavioural changes.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if needed) and ask: 'When was this last reviewed, and was the family involved?' Also ask: 'What dementia training have staff completed, and when did they last do a refresher?'"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Good rating under Caring indicates that inspectors were satisfied that staff treated residents with kindness and respect at the time of the visit. However, the published report includes no direct observations of staff-resident interactions, no quotes from residents or relatives about how care felt, and no specific examples of dignity in practice. For a dementia nursing home, where residents may be unable to articulate their experience verbally, inspector observation of non-verbal communication and unhurried interactions is particularly important u2014 and that detail is absent here.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in DCC family review data, cited positively in 57.3% of all reviews u2014 and for good reason. For your mum or dad living with dementia, the quality of every individual interaction across every hour of every day is the substance of their life. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that non-verbal communication u2014 tone of voice, eye contact, a gentle touch, responding to a distressed expression u2014 matters as much as what staff say. A Good rating tells you the threshold was met; it does not tell you whether staff sit down at eye level, use your parent's preferred name, or pause when someone looks confused rather than moving on. You can only learn that by watching.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that person-led care in dementia u2014 where staff know the individual's life history, preferences, and non-verbal signals u2014 is consistently associated with lower rates of distress, reduced use of sedating medication, and higher family satisfaction scores.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch a corridor interaction between a staff member and a resident who isn't asking for help u2014 are staff initiating contact, smiling, using the resident's name? This unscripted moment tells you more than any planned tour."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating under Responsive, suggesting that individualised care and activity provision met the standard required at the time. No detail is provided about the activities programme, what individual engagement looks like for residents with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions, or how the home responds to changing needs including end-of-life planning. The home's small size u2014 27 beds u2014 could in principle support a more personalised approach, but this is not confirmed by any published inspection detail.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families, 'responsive' is the question of whether your parent will have a life here u2014 not just be looked after, but engaged, stimulated, and treated as an individual. DCC review data shows activities and engagement are mentioned positively in 21.4% of family reviews, and resident happiness u2014 which is closely tied to meaningful occupation u2014 in 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence base is particularly strong here: Montessori-based approaches, everyday household tasks like folding, sorting, and simple cooking, and one-to-one engagement for those who can no longer join groups are all shown to reduce distress and improve wellbeing. With 27 beds, this home is small enough to offer genuinely individual attention u2014 but whether it does is unknown from this report.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett review found that group-only activity programmes consistently fail people with moderate to advanced dementia, and that one-to-one engagement u2014 even for ten minutes a day u2014 produces measurable reductions in agitated behaviour and improvements in mood.","watch_out":"Ask: 'For someone who can't join group activities, what does a typical Tuesday afternoon look like?' If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that is important information."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating under Well-led, and a named Nominated Individual u2014 Miss Dionne Nicola Davies u2014 is recorded as accountable for quality and compliance. The monitoring review in July 2023 found no evidence requiring reassessment. No detail is available about management visibility on the floor, staff culture, how complaints are handled, how the home communicates with families, or whether leadership has been stable. The home has been inspected twice in total, which is a relatively low inspection frequency for a home of this type and age.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good leadership is what holds everything else together u2014 it is why staff feel supported enough to be kind, why care plans get updated, and why families get a phone call when something changes. DCC review data shows management and communication with families are cited in nearly 35% of reviews combined. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability predicts quality trajectory: homes where the registered manager has been in post for more than two years consistently outperform those with frequent turnover. The July 2023 monitoring review is reassuring in that no concerns were flagged, but a desk-based review is not the same as an on-site inspection, and the last full inspection was in 2020.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that bottom-up staff empowerment u2014 where care workers feel able to raise concerns without fear u2014 is one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality in small nursing homes, and that this culture is almost always set by the registered manager.","watch_out":"Ask: 'How long has the current registered manager been in post, and have there been any significant staffing changes in the last 12 months?' Also ask how the home would contact you if your parent had a fall overnight."}

  Verified by inspector

Source: CQC inspection report →

What the evidence base says

Against the DCC Good Practice in Dementia Care standards, this home’s evidence aligns most strongly on The home provides specialist dementia care alongside general support for adults over 65. Their experience with dementia means they understand the specific needs that come with memory loss.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the home's open visiting policy lets family members drop in whenever suits them best. Regular activities and seasonal celebrations help create structure and moments of joy throughout the year. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.