Fourways Residential Home

What families say

Visitors often comment on how friendly the staff are when they arrive. Family members have noticed their relatives seem content and engaged, with one person pleased to see their loved one featured in the home's communications looking settled.

Based on 5 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth70
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality55
• Healthcare58
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-02-07 · Report published 2023-02-07 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2023 inspection. This means inspectors found at least one area where safety practice fell short of the expected standard. The published text does not specify what the concern was, making it difficult to assess the severity or whether it has been resolved. The home has 20 beds and specialises in dementia care, which makes consistent, attentive staffing especially important. Families should treat this rating as an active question to put directly to the manager before making a decision.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement rating for Safe is the single most important thing to understand before choosing this home for your parent. Our Good Practice evidence base, drawn from 61 studies, identifies night staffing levels and agency staff reliance as the points where safety most commonly slips in small residential homes. With only 20 residents, the home is small enough that losing even one permanent member of staff overnight can significantly change the level of supervision available. The inspection findings do not tell us what caused the Safe rating, so you cannot rely on published information alone here. You need to ask the manager face to face what went wrong, what changed, and what evidence they can show you that things are now different.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios are the most common source of safety failures in small dementia care homes, and that homes relying heavily on agency staff show higher rates of undetected deterioration and incident under-reporting.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the staffing rota for the last two weeks, including nights. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency staff, and ask what the minimum number of staff on duty overnight is for the 20 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. A Good rating suggests these areas meet the expected standard, and the home's specialism in dementia indicates that dementia-specific knowledge should be part of how staff work. The published text does not include specific observations, quotes, or examples that would allow a more detailed assessment. Families should ask for specifics when they visit.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective is reassuring, particularly for a home that specialises in dementia, but the published findings do not include enough detail to tell you whether your parent's specific needs would be well understood and planned for. Our Good Practice evidence base emphasises that care plans need to function as living documents, updated as a person's condition changes, not completed once and filed away. Food quality is also included in this domain, and our family review data shows it features in 20.9 percent of positive reviews, meaning families notice and value it strongly. Ask to see a care plan that has been reviewed recently, and ask how the home updates plans when a resident's needs change.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that homes where care plans are regularly reviewed in partnership with families, and updated to reflect changes in a person's dementia, produce better outcomes for residents and higher family satisfaction scores.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often care plans are formally reviewed, and ask to see an example of a plan that was updated in the last three months. Check whether the plan includes the person's life history, preferred routines, and communication preferences, not just their medical needs."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This covers how staff treat the people who live at the home, including warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. A Good rating in this area is one of the strongest indicators of day-to-day quality of life for your parent. The published text does not include direct observations or resident and family testimony, so the specific evidence behind this rating is not available in the published report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3 percent of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2 percent. A Good rating for Caring suggests inspectors saw evidence of respectful, kind interactions, but the published text does not tell you what they actually observed. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that for people living with dementia, non-verbal communication, tone of voice, pace, and physical gentleness, matters as much as what is said. When you visit, watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal spaces, not just during a formal tour.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that for people with advanced dementia who have limited verbal communication, staff who use consistent, calm, non-verbal cues produce significantly lower levels of distress and agitation than those who rely primarily on verbal instruction.","watch_out":"During your visit, sit in a communal area for at least 20 minutes without the manager present if possible. Watch whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they make eye contact and speak at an unhurried pace, and how they respond if a resident becomes confused or distressed."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This covers whether the home tailors care to individual needs, provides meaningful activities, supports independence, and handles complaints well. For a home specialising in dementia, responsiveness to individual preferences and the availability of one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join group activities are particularly important. The published text does not include specific activity examples, resident testimony, or complaint handling evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness appears in 27.1 percent of positive family reviews, and activities and engagement appear in 21.4 percent, making responsiveness to individual needs one of the areas families notice most. Our Good Practice evidence base finds that Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks, folding, gardening, simple cooking, provide more consistent wellbeing benefits for people with dementia than scheduled group entertainment. A Good rating here is positive, but the key question for a 20-bed home specialising in dementia is what happens for your parent on a day when they cannot or do not want to join a group activity. Ask specifically about one-to-one time.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that homes providing structured one-to-one activities for people with moderate to advanced dementia, rather than relying solely on group programmes, show measurably lower rates of withdrawal, agitation, and social isolation.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what would happen for your parent on a typical Tuesday afternoon if they did not want to join the group session. Ask how many hours of one-to-one engagement each resident receives each week, and ask whether this is recorded."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. The home has a named registered manager and a nominated individual identified in the registration record. A Good rating for Well-led suggests that governance, staff culture, and accountability structures are in order. The fact that the overall rating improved from Requires Improvement to Good between inspections is itself a signal of active leadership. The published text does not include staff testimony, manager observations, or specific governance examples.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in small care homes. A home that has improved its overall rating is more encouraging than one that has stayed static, because it suggests the manager is identifying problems and acting on them. However, the Safe domain remaining at Requires Improvement while the other four improved suggests there is still unfinished work. Communication with families appears in 11.5 percent of positive reviews in our data, and a visible, approachable manager is consistently valued. Ask how long the current manager has been in post, and ask how they communicate with families when something goes wrong.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that homes where managers have been in post for more than two years and actively involve staff in quality improvement show significantly lower rates of inspection deterioration over time.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in their current role, what specifically caused the Requires Improvement rating for Safe, and what evidence they can show you that this has been addressed since January 2023. A confident manager with nothing to hide will answer this question directly."}

  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 Fourways specialises in caring for adults over 65, including those living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home provides dementia care as part of their services for older adults. They have experience supporting residents with different stages and types of dementia. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.