Ernelesthorp Manor & Lodge

What families say

Families talk about the caring approach they see here. They describe staff who are attentive to residents' comfort and needs, taking time to understand what makes each person feel secure and well cared for.

Based on 10 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 quality65
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership74
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-02-10 · Report published 2023-02-10 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection, having previously contributed to a Requires Improvement overall rating. This indicates inspectors were satisfied that the home had strengthened its safety practices. The home cares for up to 65 people, including those living with dementia, which brings specific safety considerations around falls, wandering, and medication management. No specific detail on staffing ratios, night cover, medicines management, or incident logging is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Safe is reassuring after a previous Requires Improvement, but it tells you the baseline was met rather than that safety is exceptional. For families choosing a dementia home, the Good Practice evidence base consistently flags that safety risks are highest at night and during shift handovers. Our review data shows that families who later raise concerns often mention they did not think to ask about night staffing before choosing a home. With 65 beds and a dementia specialism, you want to know exactly how many staff are on overnight and how the home manages someone who becomes distressed at 2am.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing levels are where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that homes with high agency staff usage tend to have less consistent safety practices because agency workers are less familiar with individual residents' routines and risks.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many staff are on duty overnight for the 65 beds, and what proportion of night shifts in the last month were covered by permanent rather than agency staff? Ask to see the actual rota, not an estimate."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This domain covers care planning, dementia training, nutrition, and healthcare access. Dementia is listed as a specialism, which means the home is registered to meet the specific needs of people living with dementia, and inspectors were satisfied that effectiveness standards were met. No specific detail on care plan content, review frequency, dementia training programmes, or food quality is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Effective means inspectors found care planning and training to be satisfactory, but the published text does not let you see whether care plans are genuinely personal or whether dementia training goes beyond a basic induction. Our review data shows that food quality is mentioned positively in 20.9% of the most satisfied family reviews, often as a proxy for how much the home genuinely knows and cares about individuals. The Good Practice evidence base notes that care plans should be treated as living documents, updated when someone's needs change, not completed at admission and filed away. Ask specifically how recently they were last updated for a current resident.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that dementia training quality varies significantly between homes even where a specialism registration exists. Homes where staff receive regular, scenario-based dementia training, rather than annual e-learning modules, show better outcomes in managing distress and maintaining independence.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to describe what dementia training staff receive beyond their induction, including how often it is refreshed and whether it covers non-verbal communication and distress responses. Then ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised) to judge for yourself whether it feels like a real person or a form."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. Inspectors were satisfied that the standard of caring interactions met the Good threshold. No specific inspector observations of staff behaviour, no resident or relative quotes, and no descriptions of how dignity is maintained in practice are available in the published text.","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 follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating in Caring is a positive signal, but without specific observations in the published text, you cannot know from the report alone whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they knock before entering a room, or whether they move at your parent's pace rather than their own. These are the things that matter most when someone is living with dementia and may not be able to tell you themselves if they feel rushed or unheard.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review highlights that non-verbal communication is as important as verbal interaction for people living with dementia. Homes where staff are trained to read and respond to body language, facial expression, and behaviour as communication tend to produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes.","watch_out":"On your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in the corridor. Do they stop, make eye contact, use a name? Do they knock before entering a room? These small moments are the most reliable indicator of daily caring culture and they cost nothing to observe."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection. This domain covers activities, individualised engagement, and how well the home responds to changing needs, including end-of-life care. No specific detail on the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for people with advanced dementia, or end-of-life planning is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement are mentioned in 21.4% of the most positive family reviews in our dataset, and resident happiness or contentment appears in 27.1%. A Good Responsive rating tells you inspectors were satisfied, but it does not tell you what your parent's week would actually look like. For someone living with dementia, the Good Practice evidence consistently shows that group activities alone are not sufficient. People who cannot engage in groups need one-to-one stimulation, and the most effective approaches use familiar, everyday tasks rather than organised entertainment. Ask specifically what would happen for your parent on a day when they do not want to join a group.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and activity-based approaches, particularly those drawing on a person's own life history and including everyday household tasks, produced the strongest outcomes for wellbeing and reduced agitation in people living with dementia, compared with group-only activity programmes.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what happened last Tuesday for a resident who did not want to join the group session. If the answer is that they sat in their room or in a communal area with the television on, that is a gap worth pressing on."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2023 inspection, and this improvement from a previous Requires Improvement overall rating suggests that leadership and governance strengthened meaningfully in the period before inspection. The registered manager is named as Miss Amanda Jane Lowndes and the nominated individual as Mrs Anne Bailey. These are the two people accountable for the home's quality and compliance. No detail on management tenure, staff culture, incident learning, or governance systems is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership is weighted at 23.4% in our family review data, and the Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality over time. A home that has improved from Requires Improvement to Good has demonstrated it can respond to challenge, which is a positive sign. What you cannot know from the published text is whether the current manager has been in post long enough to have driven that improvement personally, or whether the improvement was recent and the culture is still settling. Manager tenure is one of the most important questions you can ask on a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that leadership stability, specifically a manager who has been in post for more than two years and who staff describe as visible and supportive, is one of the strongest single predictors of sustained quality in a care home, particularly where a home has previously been rated below Good.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post at this home, and how long has the current senior care team been together? If the answer involves significant recent change, ask what is being done to maintain consistency while the team settles."}

  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 under 65 as well as older residents, supporting people with physical disabilities alongside their dementia care services.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the team works to maintain family connections through regular communication. They support people at different stages of their dementia journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.