St Andrew's Court Care Home in Hull – Exemplar Health Care

What families say

Based on 9 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity58
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare58
• Management & leadership42
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-05-17 · Report published 2023-05-17 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Safe domain Good at the April 2023 inspection. This is an improvement on the previous inspection. The published report does not include specific observations about staffing levels, medicines management, falls recording, or infection control practices. The home is registered to provide nursing care, which means a nurse should be available around the clock, but no detail about night cover appears in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, particularly given the previous Requires Improvement rating. However, safety is where the gap between a daytime inspection and your parent's actual experience can be largest. Good Practice research consistently highlights that night staffing is where safety problems are most likely to surface in smaller homes like this one, with 21 beds. Agency staff reliance is another known risk factor: consistent, familiar faces matter enormously for people with dementia, who can become distressed by unfamiliar carers. None of this detail is available in the published findings, so you will need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance are two of the most reliable early indicators of safety risk in care homes, particularly for people with dementia who rely on consistent, familiar relationships.","watch_out":"Ask the home to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff and how many by agency staff, and ask specifically how many staff are on duty between 10pm and 6am for 21 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the April 2023 inspection. The published summary does not include detail about care plan quality, how often plans are reviewed, whether families are included in reviews, or what dementia-specific training staff have completed. GP access and medicines management are not described. The home lists dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities as specialisms, which implies specialist knowledge should be in place, but no evidence of this is provided in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating means inspectors were satisfied that the home knows what it is doing at a broad level. For families, though, the detail matters a great deal. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated regularly and shaped by the person themselves, where possible, and by family members. Dementia-specific training is particularly important: staff who understand how dementia affects communication and behaviour are better placed to spot changes early and respond with patience rather than frustration. Food quality is also a meaningful indicator of genuine care, and 20.9% of positive family reviews in our data specifically mention it. None of these areas are described in the published report, so ask about all of them.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies regular, family-inclusive care plan reviews and meaningful dementia-specific training, covering communication, behaviour, and environment, as two of the clearest markers distinguishing genuinely effective dementia care from care that is merely compliant.","watch_out":"Ask to see an example of how a care plan is structured and updated. Specifically ask: when was it last reviewed, who was involved in that review, and what changed as a result of it? If the answer is vague, that tells you something important."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the April 2023 inspection. This is a meaningful rating, as inspectors assess dignity, respect, warmth, and person-centred interactions when judging this domain. However, the published summary includes no direct quotes from residents or relatives, and no specific observations from inspectors about how staff interacted with the people living there. The previous Requires Improvement rating makes the improvement to Good a positive sign, but the absence of supporting detail means it is not possible to verify what, specifically, has changed.","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 compassionate, dignified treatment appears in 55.2%. These are the things that matter most to families, and yet they are precisely the things hardest to judge from a written summary. The inspection found no concerns in this domain, which is reassuring, but the observable signals you should look for on a visit are specific: does a staff member greet your parent by their preferred name without being prompted? Do staff knock before entering a room? Do they move without hurry, even when the home is busy? These moments are more revealing than any published rating.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research highlights that non-verbal communication, including pace, eye contact, and physical positioning, is as important as spoken words for people with dementia, and that knowing a person's history, preferences, and preferred name is a prerequisite for genuinely person-led care rather than task-led care.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes your parent in a corridor or communal area. Do they stop, make eye contact, and use their name? Or do they walk past? This unscripted moment tells you more about the caring culture than any conversation with the manager."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the April 2023 inspection. Inspectors assess activities, individual engagement, complaint handling, and end-of-life planning under this domain. The published summary contains no detail about any of these areas. The home cares for people with a range of needs including dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, which means the activity and engagement offer needs to be flexible and individually tailored, but no evidence of this appears in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Responsive rating means inspectors were satisfied that the home responds to individual needs at a broad level. Our review data shows that activities and engagement feature in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness and contentment in 27.1%. For someone with dementia, group activities may not always be accessible or meaningful. Good Practice research identifies one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks like folding, sorting, or simple gardening, as particularly valuable for people who cannot join group sessions. Whether St Andrew's Court provides this kind of individual engagement is not covered in the published findings, and it is one of the most important questions to ask.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-based individual engagement, where a person with dementia is supported with familiar, purposeful activities rather than passive group entertainment, is associated with better wellbeing and lower levels of distress.","watch_out":"Ask the activities lead what would happen on a typical afternoon for your parent if they could not join a group session. Ask for a specific example, not a general answer. If the response is that they would sit in their room or in the lounge watching television, that is worth weighing carefully."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the April 2023 inspection, the only domain not to reach Good. A registered manager, Mrs Joanne Louise Moore, is named on the registration, and a nominated individual, Ms Selina Wall, is also identified. The published summary does not describe what specific concerns led to the Requires Improvement rating, what actions the home has committed to taking, or what progress has been made since May 2023. The home has been reviewed by the regulator in July 2023 and no reassessment was triggered at that point.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of whether a care home's quality trajectory holds or reverses. A Requires Improvement rating in the Well-led domain, even alongside Good ratings elsewhere, is a flag worth taking seriously. Management (23.4% weight in our family scoring) and communication with families (11.5%) are both captured under this domain. Good Practice research identifies bottom-up leadership cultures, where staff feel confident raising concerns, as a key distinguisher between homes that improve and those that plateau. The unanswered question here is what specifically needed to improve, and whether it has. That is the most important conversation to have before making a decision.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability and a culture where staff can speak up without fear as the two most reliable predictors of sustained quality in care homes. Homes with recent management instability or a compliance-focused rather than person-focused culture show higher rates of quality decline over time.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what did inspectors identify as needing improvement in the Well-led domain, what specific changes have been made since the inspection, and how will you know if those changes are working? A manager who can answer this clearly and specifically is a more reassuring sign than one who gives a general response about commitment to improvement."}

  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 both under and over 65, including those living with dementia, mental health conditions and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the staff focus on building relationships that help people feel recognised and understood. Families have noticed how this patient approach can lift their loved one's spirits. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.