Millers Grange Care Home – Care UK

What families say

Visitors describe feeling genuinely welcomed by pleasant staff who take time to be attentive to both residents and their families. The friendly atmosphere seems to run throughout the home, with people noting how caring and experienced the team appears to be.

Based on 7 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness72
• Activities & engagement68
• Food quality68
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2021-05-01 · Report published 2021-05-01 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. This means inspectors did not identify significant concerns about safety, staffing, medicines management, or infection control. However, the published summary does not include specific observations about staffing ratios, how medicines are managed, how falls are recorded, or what infection control measures are in place. The home is registered for 52 beds and cares for people with dementia, a group where safe staffing at night matters considerably.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating means the inspection did not uncover failings, which is genuinely important. That said, our Good Practice evidence base, drawing on 61 studies, consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety is most likely to slip in care homes for people with dementia. The published report gives no information about how many staff are on duty after 8pm or how often agency staff cover those shifts. In our family review data, safe environment and staff attentiveness together feature in roughly a quarter of positive reviews, suggesting families notice and value visible, responsive safety. You will not be able to assess this from the published findings alone: a visit, ideally in the early evening, is the only way to see it directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent safety in dementia care settings, because unfamiliar faces increase distress and reduce continuity of observation for residents who cannot self-report concerns.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm on a typical weeknight, and how often is that shift covered by agency staff? Ask to see last month's rota rather than a template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection, covering training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The home is registered to care for people with dementia as well as adults over and under 65. No specific detail about dementia training content, GP access arrangements, care plan quality, or food provision is included in the published summary. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the overall standard.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home covers several things your parent depends on every day: whether staff know how to respond to confusion or distress without resorting to sedation, whether GP visits happen promptly when something changes, and whether mealtimes are genuinely supported rather than rushed. Food quality features in roughly 21% of positive family reviews in our data, and families consistently mention it as a signal of how much care staff take. The published findings do not give enough detail to assess any of these areas confidently. Dementia-specific training content is particularly important to ask about, as a Good rating covers general effectiveness but does not specify whether staff have completed accredited dementia training beyond mandatory minimums.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that care plans function as living documents only when staff are trained to update them in response to changes in behaviour or health, and when families are actively involved in reviews. Homes where care plans are updated reactively rather than routinely are more likely to miss gradual decline.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: what dementia-specific training have all care staff completed in the past 12 months, and can you show me an example of how a care plan is updated when a resident's needs change? Ask whether families are invited to care plan review meetings."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection, which covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. No direct quotes from residents or relatives are included in the published summary, and no specific inspector observations about how staff interact with residents are described. The rating indicates inspectors were satisfied that the standard of caring met a Good threshold.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity together account for a further 55.2%. These are not abstract standards: they show up in specific, observable moments. Does a carer use your mum's preferred name without being reminded? Do staff pause and make eye contact when passing someone in the corridor, or do they move through quickly? The inspection rating tells you the bar was met, but it does not describe what caring looks like on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. For a home catering to people with dementia, non-verbal communication matters enormously, because many residents cannot articulate how they are being treated.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies non-verbal communication as a critical and often underassessed skill in dementia care. Staff who read and respond to facial expression, posture, and vocalisation in people who have lost verbal communication provide measurably better wellbeing outcomes, and this is visible to a trained observer but rarely captured in inspection ratings.","watch_out":"On your visit, sit in a communal area for 20 minutes and watch what happens when a resident calls out or shows signs of distress. Count how long it takes a staff member to respond, and note whether they make eye contact and speak calmly or deal with the situation quickly and move on."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection, covering activities, individual care, responsiveness to preferences, and end-of-life support. No detail about the activities programme, how the home supports residents with advanced dementia, or how individual preferences are recorded and acted on is included in the published summary. The home has a specialist dementia registration, which implies a responsibility to offer dementia-appropriate engagement.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement feature in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. These numbers reflect how much families care about whether their parent has something to live for, not just something to be kept safe from. For people with dementia, group activities are not always accessible, particularly in later stages, and the Good Practice evidence base is clear that one-to-one engagement and familiar household tasks (folding laundry, tending plants, simple cooking) produce better wellbeing outcomes than structured group sessions alone. The published findings do not tell you whether Millers Grange provides this kind of individual engagement or relies primarily on group activities. This is one of the most important questions to ask on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and individual task-focused approaches to activity significantly reduce agitation and improve mood in people with moderate to advanced dementia, and that homes relying solely on group entertainment programmes often leave the most vulnerable residents disengaged for long periods.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: what happens for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join a group session? Ask to see the activities record for one specific resident over the past two weeks, not just the general programme on the noticeboard."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. The home is operated by Care UK Community Partnerships Ltd, a large national provider. Mrs Rachel Louise Scurr is the registered manager, and Ms Rachel Louise Harvey is the nominated individual. No information about the manager's tenure, how staff feedback is gathered, how complaints are handled, or what governance and quality assurance processes are in place is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, according to the Good Practice evidence review. A Good rating in this domain is positive, but large provider organisations can sometimes have high manager turnover or cultures where front-line staff feel unable to speak up about concerns. Management and communication with families together feature in about 35% of the themes families raise in our review data. The key question here is not just whether a manager is in post but how long she has been there, whether she is known to residents by name, and whether families feel genuinely informed when something changes. These things are not visible in the inspection summary.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that bottom-up staff empowerment, where care workers feel able to raise concerns without fear and managers are regularly visible on the floor, is a stronger predictor of sustained quality than top-down governance processes alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in this role, and what was the last complaint the home received and how was it resolved? Notice whether she answers specifically or in general terms, and whether staff greet her by name when she walks through the communal areas."}

  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 cares for adults both under and over 65, offering specialised dementia support alongside general care.. Gaps or open questions remain on With dementia care as one of their specialisms, the team brings experience in supporting residents with varying needs. The caring approach that visitors notice can be particularly important for those living with dementia. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.