Ashgrove House Care Home

What families say

Some families describe the staff here as caring and patient. There's a sense that the team brings both kindness and professional experience to their work, with people noting how supportive staff can be.

Based on 4 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality58
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-11-27 · Report published 2018-11-27 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain is rated Good, representing an improvement from the previous Requires Improvement assessment. This means inspectors were satisfied that risks are managed, medicines are handled appropriately, and staffing arrangements are adequate to keep residents safe. The home cares for people with dementia and complex needs, so a Good Safe rating carries particular weight. No specific safety concerns or incidents are flagged in the available summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating tells you that inspectors did not find the gaps in safety practice they found previously. For your parent, especially if they are living with dementia, this matters enormously: falls management, medication accuracy, and having enough staff present at night are all part of what Safe covers. Research on dementia care homes consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips, so a confirmed improvement here is reassuring. However, because the summary does not provide staffing numbers or detail about medicines management, you should ask the home directly how many staff are on duty after 8pm and how incidents are recorded and followed up.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (2026) found that agency staff reliance and insufficient night staffing are the two most common contributors to safety incidents in care homes for people with dementia. Consistent, trained staff who know your parent are a core protective factor.","watch_out":"Ask the home: how many staff are on the dementia unit overnight, and what is the ratio of permanent to agency staff on a typical week? Then ask to see the falls log for the last three months."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain is rated Good, covering training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to dementia-specific training and care approaches. A Good Effective rating means inspectors found that staff have the knowledge and tools to deliver care that makes a difference to health outcomes. The available summary does not provide detail about training content, GP access arrangements, or how mealtimes are managed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For your parent, Effective means staff should know enough about dementia (or whatever condition your parent lives with) to adapt care to their needs, not just follow a generic routine. It also covers whether care plans are genuinely personal and regularly updated. Families in DCC's review data frequently mention food quality as one of the clearest signals of whether a home genuinely cares, and food falls within this domain. Because the report summary lacks specifics here, you will need to ask directly about training, mealtimes, and how often care plans are reviewed with family input.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated after every significant health change, not just at annual review. Homes where families are actively invited to contribute to care plan reviews consistently score higher on family satisfaction.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if necessary) and ask the home: when was the last time a family member sat down with a key worker to review and update their parent's care plan?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain is rated Good. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, privacy, and whether residents feel respected and treated as individuals. A Good rating here means inspectors were satisfied with the quality of human interactions they observed and that staff treat people with consideration. No direct quotes from residents or relatives are included in the available summary, which limits what can be confirmed with specificity.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted factor in DCC's family review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follows closely at 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is therefore highly significant for families. For your parent, it means inspectors saw staff treating people with respect and consideration during the visit. What the report cannot tell you is how that warmth shows up on a quiet Tuesday afternoon when no inspector is present. On your visit, watch how staff address your parent by name, whether they crouch down to speak at eye level, and how quickly they respond when someone calls out.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review notes that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal in dementia care. Staff who make eye contact, use touch appropriately, and move at the person's pace produce measurably lower levels of distress in residents with advanced dementia.","watch_out":"On your visit, stand quietly in a corridor for five minutes and observe. Are staff walking past residents without acknowledging them, or do they stop, make eye contact, and speak? This tells you more than any planned tour."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain is rated Good, covering activities, engagement, individuality, and end-of-life care. For a home with a dementia specialism, Responsive is particularly important because it reflects whether the home treats each person as an individual with preferences and history, not just a diagnosis. A Good rating indicates inspectors found this to be the case. No detail about specific activities, one-to-one engagement, or end-of-life planning is available from the summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is the third highest-weighted theme in DCC's family review data, cited in 27.1% of positive reviews. For your parent, Responsive means the home should know what they enjoy, what they find distressing, and what their life looked like before they moved in. Good Practice research consistently shows that group activities alone are insufficient for people with advanced dementia, and that meaningful one-to-one time, including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or looking at photographs, is as important as any organised programme. Ask the home what happens for your parent on a day they do not want to join a group.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and individualised activity approaches, including participation in familiar household tasks, significantly reduce agitation and improve mood in people living with dementia compared to group-only activity programmes.","watch_out":"Ask: if my parent does not want to join the group activity today, what will a staff member do with them instead? Ask for a specific example from last week."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain is rated Good, and the home is led by registered manager Miss Kelly Appleyard, with Mrs Tracey Holroyd as nominated individual. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating across the whole home is a strong indicator that leadership has been effective in identifying and addressing past shortfalls. A Well-led Good rating means inspectors found governance, accountability, and culture to be sound. No detail about manager tenure, staff satisfaction, or specific quality improvement measures is available from the summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management visibility and responsiveness is mentioned by 23.4% of families in DCC's positive review data, and communication with families features in 11.5% of reviews. For you as a family member, good leadership means that if something goes wrong, there is a manager who will tell you, explain what happened, and show you what has changed. The fact that this home has moved from Requires Improvement to Good under the current leadership is genuinely encouraging. Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality in care homes, so it is worth asking how long Miss Appleyard has been in post and whether she intends to stay.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies leadership stability as the single strongest predictor of quality trajectory in care homes. Homes with consistent, empowering managers who actively seek staff feedback consistently outperform those with high manager turnover.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post, and what was the single most important change you made to turn this home around? The confidence and specificity of the answer will tell you a great deal."}

  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 specialises in supporting people with sensory impairments, physical disabilities and mental health conditions. They're equipped to care for adults of all ages, from those under 65 through to older residents.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, Ashgrove House offers specialist support. The team has experience caring for people at different stages of their dementia journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.