Coniston House

What families say

Relatives talk about walking in and finding their family members genuinely settled and comfortable. There's a sense that residents feel at home here, with staff who take time to understand each person's preferences and routines.

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

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement55
• Food quality55
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership45
• Resident happiness65

What inspectors found

Inspected 2020-02-26 · Report published 2020-02-26 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This rating generally requires that people are protected from avoidable harm, that medicines are managed safely, and that staffing levels are sufficient for the number of people living in the home. The published report does not include specific observations about night staffing ratios, agency staff usage, or falls management at Coniston House. With 27 beds and a dementia specialism, how the home manages risk after dark is an important question the published findings do not answer.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, but it tells you relatively little on its own without the underlying detail. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety problems in care homes most commonly emerge on night shifts, when staffing is thinnest and oversight is reduced. For a 27-bed home with a dementia specialism, you want to know the actual number of permanent staff on overnight, not just that the home passed its inspection. The inspection also does not record whether the home has a robust system for logging and learning from falls or incidents, which is one of the clearest markers of a genuinely safe culture.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing levels are where safety most commonly deteriorates in residential dementia care, and that reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency that people with dementia rely on to feel secure.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many permanent staff were on each night shift and how many shifts were covered by agency workers."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. Dementia is listed as a specialism, which means the home should have training and care planning processes that reflect the particular needs of people living with dementia. The published report does not describe the content or frequency of dementia training, how care plans are structured, or how often they are reviewed with families. Food quality and dietary management, which our review data identifies as important to families, are not covered in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research consistently shows that care plans work best when they are treated as living documents, updated regularly and shaped by input from the person's family. A Good rating for Effective suggests the basics are in place, but without knowing how recently care plans were reviewed or whether families are invited into that process, it is hard to judge how well the home would adapt as your parent's needs change. Food quality is mentioned positively in 20.9% of family reviews in our data set, making it one of the clearer markers of genuine care. This is something you can directly assess on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that dementia-specific training is most effective when it covers non-verbal communication and behavioural understanding, not just basic care competencies. Homes where staff receive regular, structured dementia training show measurably better outcomes for residents in the areas of agitation and distress.","watch_out":"Ask the manager when your parent's care plan would first be written, who contributes to it, and how often it is formally reviewed. Then ask to see an example of how a care plan was updated after a resident's needs changed."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether people are supported to maintain their independence. The published report does not include specific inspector observations, quotes from residents, or quotes from relatives to illustrate what caring practice looks like at Coniston House day to day. The absence of detail means the Good rating reflects a passed threshold rather than a rich picture of the home's culture.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews. Compassion and dignity are a close second at 55.2%. These are not soft measures; they are what families consistently say matters most. Because the published report does not include specific observations or quotes for this domain, you cannot rely on the rating alone to judge the atmosphere at Coniston House. The most reliable way to assess warmth is to observe staff interactions in person: watch whether your parent would be addressed by their preferred name, whether staff stop to listen, and whether the pace feels unhurried.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research highlights that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken interaction for people with advanced dementia. Staff who make eye contact, approach calmly, and use a person's preferred name consistently produce lower rates of distress and agitation than those relying primarily on verbal instruction.","watch_out":"During your visit, note whether staff in corridors and communal areas make eye contact and acknowledge the people around them, or whether they move through the space without engaging. Ask the manager what name your parent would be called, and how that preference would be recorded and shared with all staff including night staff and agency workers."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain covers whether care is tailored to individuals, whether activities are meaningful and varied, and whether the home responds to complaints effectively. The published report does not describe the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for residents who cannot join group sessions, or how the home involves people with dementia in decisions about their daily lives. With dementia listed as a specialism, the absence of detail here is a gap worth probing.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness, which includes being settled, engaged, and having something to look forward to, features in 27.1% of positive family reviews in our data. Activities and engagement are mentioned in 21.4%. For a parent living with dementia, the quality of daily engagement often matters more than any clinical measure. Good Practice research shows that tailored one-to-one activities, including familiar household tasks and sensory engagement, are more effective for people with moderate to advanced dementia than group programmes alone. The inspection does not tell you whether Coniston House offers this level of individual engagement, so it is one of the most important things to ask about directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and occupation-based approaches, where residents are supported to do familiar, purposeful tasks at their own pace, produce significant reductions in agitation and improvements in wellbeing for people with dementia, compared with passive or group-only activity models.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last week's actual activity record rather than the planned schedule. Then ask specifically how staff engage residents who are unable or unwilling to join group sessions, including what happens on evenings and weekends when activity staff may not be on duty."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2022 inspection. This is the one domain where Coniston House did not meet the standard. The home is run by Enviro Medical Limited, with a named registered manager and nominated individual in post. The published report does not detail the specific governance or management failings that led to this rating, which makes it difficult to assess how serious the concerns were or whether they have since been addressed. A Requires Improvement rating in Well-led is significant because leadership quality is the strongest predictor of whether a home improves or deteriorates over time.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is identified in our Good Practice evidence base as one of the clearest predictors of quality trajectory in care homes. A Requires Improvement rating here is the single most important flag in this inspection report. It does not mean the home is unsafe, but it does mean that inspectors found the systems for oversight, accountability, or quality monitoring were not working as they should. The inspection was in January 2022, which means over three years have passed. You need to find out what specific issues were identified, what the home did to address them, and whether a subsequent inspection has confirmed improvement.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research found that homes with stable, visible leadership and staff who feel able to raise concerns without fear show consistently better outcomes across all domains, including safety and resident wellbeing. Leadership instability is one of the most reliable early indicators of declining quality.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what specific issues did the Requires Improvement rating in Well-led relate to, and what evidence can you show me that those issues have been resolved? Also ask whether there has been a follow-up inspection or monitoring visit since February 2022 and what the outcome was."}

  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 Coniston House provides residential care for adults over 65, with particular experience supporting people living with dementia. They also care for younger adults who need residential support.. Gaps or open questions remain on The team understands how to support residents with dementia through their daily routines. Staff work closely with families to maintain familiar patterns and preferences that help people feel more settled. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.