Dene Lodge Residential Home

What families say

Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement68
• Food quality68
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-08-03 · Report published 2022-08-03 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for safety at its May 2024 inspection. No specific findings about staffing levels, medicines management, falls, or infection control are available in the published text. The home previously held a Requires Improvement overall rating, so understanding what safety-related improvements were made is an important question for families. With 39 beds and a dementia specialism, night staffing ratios and agency use are particularly worth scrutinising.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the foundation of every other decision you make about a care home. Our Good Practice evidence review found that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips, and that over-reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency that people with dementia need. A Good rating is reassuring, but the published inspection contains no specific observations about how many staff are on overnight, how medicines are managed, or how the home logs and learns from falls. These are questions you need to ask directly, because the published evidence does not answer them.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staffing and low permanent staff retention are among the strongest predictors of safety deterioration in dementia care settings, regardless of the headline inspection rating.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, not the template. Count how many shifts overnight were covered by the same permanent carers versus agency staff, and ask what the minimum staffing level is on a night shift for 39 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at the May 2024 inspection. No specific detail is available in the published text about care plan quality, GP access, dementia training, or how food and nutrition are managed. The home declares dementia as a specialism at registration level, but the depth of dementia-specific practice in daily care is not described in the available findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home means care plans that actually describe your parent as a person, not just a list of medical conditions. It means staff who know what a period of distress looks like for your mum specifically, and what helps. Our Good Practice evidence base consistently identifies care plans as living documents, updated regularly with family involvement, as one of the clearest markers of genuinely effective care. Because the inspection text does not describe what care plans look like here, or what dementia training staff have completed, you will need to ask these questions yourself before you can feel confident.","evidence_base":"Research across 61 studies found that dementia training which goes beyond mandatory e-learning, to include communication skills and behaviour recognition, is consistently associated with better day-to-day outcomes for people living with dementia in residential settings.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what specific dementia training every care staff member completes, when it was last updated, and whether it covers recognising distress in people who cannot communicate verbally. Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised) to judge whether it reads like a real person or a medical form."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for caring at the May 2024 inspection. No direct observations of staff interactions, quotes from residents, or specific examples of dignity-preserving practice are available in the published text. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with what they saw, but the absence of detail means families cannot verify the specific behaviours that matter most.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important factor in family satisfaction, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews across the 5,409 UK care homes in our review data. Compassion and dignity together feature in 55.2% of positive reviews. These are not soft extras; they are the core of what makes a care home somewhere your parent can live well. The inspection found this home Good for caring, which is meaningful, but without specific observations or resident testimony in the published text, you cannot know from this report alone whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they sit rather than stand during conversations, or whether personal care feels unhurried. Observe these things yourself on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including eye contact, unhurried movement, and physical proximity, matters as much as verbal communication for people with advanced dementia, and is often a more reliable indicator of a caring culture than formal policies.","watch_out":"Spend time in a communal area during your visit and watch how staff move through the space. Do they stop and make eye contact with residents as they pass, or do they move purposefully from task to task without acknowledgement? That pattern tells you more about the caring culture than any policy document."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for responsiveness at the May 2024 inspection. No detail is available in the published text about activities, individual engagement, or how end-of-life care is planned. With a dementia specialism, meaningful engagement for people at different stages of the condition, including those who cannot participate in group activities, is a key area to explore.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness for 27.1%. For people living with dementia, meaningful activity is not a luxury; it is part of how the day holds together. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that one-to-one activity, not just group programmes, is essential for residents who find social settings difficult or who are at a more advanced stage. The inspection does not describe what a typical day looks like here, so you will need to ask, and ideally observe, before you can judge whether your parent would have a life, not just a routine, in this home.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and household task approaches, where residents engage in familiar, purposeful activities at their own pace, produce measurable improvements in wellbeing for people with moderate to advanced dementia compared with structured group activities alone.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity records for the last two weeks, including what was done for residents who were in their rooms or who did not join group sessions. Ask specifically: what would a typical Tuesday afternoon look like for a resident with moderate dementia who prefers quieter environments?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for leadership at the May 2024 inspection. The registered manager is Mr Julian Sykes-Brown, and the nominated individual is Mr Lewis William Don. The home recovered from a previous Requires Improvement rating to achieve Good across all domains, which suggests meaningful leadership action was taken. No detail is available about management visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or how families are kept informed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good leadership is what holds everything else together. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies management stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in care homes. The fact that this home recovered from Requires Improvement to Good is an encouraging signal, but it also raises an important question: what specifically went wrong, what changed, and how confident is the current manager that the improvements will hold? Communication with families accounts for 11.5% of positive reviews in our data, and a well-led home should be able to describe clearly how it keeps you informed and involved. Ask these questions directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear, and where managers are regularly visible on the floor rather than office-based, show more sustained quality improvement than those where governance is primarily paper-based.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what was the Requires Improvement rating for, and what specifically changed to bring the home back to Good? Listen for whether the answer is specific and confident, or vague and defensive. Also ask how long the current registered manager has been in post, as leadership continuity is a key indicator of whether improvements will last."}

  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 team here cares for adults over 65, with particular experience supporting people living with dementia. They've developed approaches to help residents feel settled and maintain connections with loved ones.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff work to create consistent routines and familiar faces for residents with dementia. The home has supported people through different stages of their dementia journey, including some who've lived there for several years. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.