The Laurels Care Home

What families say

Based on 7 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 2018-06-09 · Report published 2018-06-09 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the February 2021 inspection. The home previously held a Requires Improvement rating and has since improved. No specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls logging, or infection control practice is included in the published inspection text. The review in July 2023 found no evidence requiring a change to this rating.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating means inspectors did not identify significant concerns about risk, medicines, or staffing at the time of the inspection. However, the inspection text provides no numbers: no staffing ratios, no information about night cover, and no detail about how incidents are reviewed. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety in care homes is most vulnerable, and agency reliance undermines the consistency your parent needs. The improvement from Requires Improvement is genuinely encouraging, but the inspection is now over three years old and the world of care staffing has changed significantly since 2021. Ask for last week's actual rota, not a template.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies night staffing ratios and agency reliance as two of the strongest predictors of safety outcomes in residential dementia care. A home that cannot show you stable, named night staff warrants further scrutiny.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, not a template. Count the names on night shifts and ask how many are permanent staff versus agency workers. For a 28-bed home with dementia residents, there should be a clear answer about who is in charge after 10pm."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the February 2021 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and how well the home uses information to meet individual needs. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies some level of specific training and care planning. No detail about GP access, dementia training content, care plan review processes, or food quality is included in the published inspection text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating tells you that inspectors did not find systemic gaps in training, care planning, or healthcare at the time of the visit. For a home that lists dementia as a specialism, you would expect staff to be trained in dementia-specific communication, distress recognition, and person-centred approaches, but the inspection gives no information about what that training actually covers or how recently it was completed. Food quality is one of the most frequently mentioned themes in positive family reviews across our data, cited in over 20% of positive responses, yet there is nothing in the published findings about menus, choice, or how the home manages complex dietary needs. Ask to see a week's menu and ask whether your parent's preferences would be recorded in their care plan.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans function as genuinely useful tools only when they are reviewed regularly with family involvement and reflect the person's current preferences, not just their baseline assessment. Ask how often care plans are updated and whether you would be invited to contribute.","watch_out":"Ask to see an example of how a care plan is structured (with personal details removed). Check whether it includes sections on preferred name, life history, communication preferences, and known sources of comfort or distress. A care plan that reads like a medical form rather than a description of a person is a warning sign."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the February 2021 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether your parent's independence is supported. No direct inspector observations of staff interactions, no resident quotes, and no relative testimony are included in the published inspection text. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good suggests real changes were made, but the published report does not describe what those changes were.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited by name in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are the things families remember and the things that shape your parent's daily experience. The inspection gives a Good rating but no window into what warmth actually looks like at The Laurels. When you visit, watch how staff enter a room: do they knock, use your parent's preferred name, make eye contact, and move without hurry? These small signals are more reliable than any written description. Good Practice research is clear that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people with dementia, and that person-centred care requires staff who know individuals, not just care plans.","evidence_base":"Research consistently shows that unhurried, named, and non-verbal communication from staff is the most reliable indicator of a caring culture in dementia care settings. It is also the easiest thing to observe directly on a visit, often within the first ten minutes.","watch_out":"During your visit, notice whether staff use your parent's preferred name when speaking with current residents. Watch a mealtime or a corridor interaction. If staff are talking over residents, using generic terms like 'sweetheart' without knowing the person's preference, or moving quickly without acknowledging people, take that seriously regardless of the rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the February 2021 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, responsiveness to changing needs, and end-of-life care. The home lists dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment as specialisms, implying some tailoring of provision. No specific examples of activities, individual engagement programmes, or end-of-life planning are described in the published inspection text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness, which depends heavily on meaningful daily engagement, appears in 27.1%. For someone with dementia, group activities like bingo or singalong sessions may be enjoyable but are not sufficient on their own. Good Practice research identifies tailored one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks, sensory activities, and life history-based interaction, as the most effective approach for people in the later stages of dementia. The inspection gives no information about whether The Laurels offers this kind of individual provision. Ask specifically what happens for a resident who cannot engage with group activities, and what a typical Tuesday afternoon would look like for your parent.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and life history-based individual activities produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than group-only activity programmes, particularly for people with moderate to advanced dementia. Individual engagement requires dedicated staff time and cannot be assumed from a Good Responsive rating alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator (or the manager, if there is no dedicated activities staff member) to describe the last one-to-one activity session they ran for a resident who could not join a group. If they cannot give you a specific example, that is useful information."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the February 2021 inspection. The home is run by Superior Care Homes Ltd, with Mrs Lisa Cooper as registered manager and Mr Philip Klor as nominated individual. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good across all five domains reflects a positive leadership trajectory. No detail about manager visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or how the home handles complaints is included in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership appear in 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and communication with families is cited in 11.5%. The presence of a named, registered manager is a structural positive: there is a named person accountable for what happens in this home. The improvement trajectory from Requires Improvement to Good matters too, because it suggests the leadership responded to concerns rather than letting them persist. What the inspection cannot tell you is how long Mrs Lisa Cooper has been in post, whether leadership is stable now, and how the home has managed the significant pressures on the care sector since 2021. Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality. Ask how long the current manager has been in their role and whether there have been significant staffing changes in the last year.","evidence_base":"Leadership stability is one of the most consistent predictors of care quality trajectory in the research literature. A home that has recently changed managers, or where the registered manager is frequently absent, faces a structural risk to the improvements it has made.","watch_out":"Ask Mrs Cooper directly: how long have you been the registered manager here, and what is the biggest change you have made since the previous inspection? A confident, specific answer tells you something real. Vague generalities about commitment to care are less reassuring than a concrete example of a problem identified and fixed."}

  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 welcomes both younger adults under 65 and older residents, supporting those with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. This breadth of experience means they're equipped for various care needs.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff here understand how to support residents with dementia through consistent routines and patient interactions. Their knowledge helps them respond appropriately to different behaviours and needs. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.