Wellburn House Care Home

What families say

Based on 12 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-02-05 · Report published 2019-02-05 · Inspected 8 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated Safe as Good at the assessment on 30 January 2025. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. The published summary does not provide specific observations, staff-to-resident ratios, or examples of how safety systems work in practice. The previous Requires Improvement rating means that safety was a concern at an earlier inspection, so understanding what specifically changed is important. No quotes from residents or relatives are available for this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a period of Requires Improvement is reassuring, but it is the detail behind the rating that matters most for your parent. Good Practice research highlights that night staffing is one of the areas where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and this home has 90 beds across a complex mix of needs. The published findings do not tell us how many staff are on overnight, whether agency cover is used regularly, or how falls are logged and learned from. These are exactly the questions worth pressing on before you commit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice in Dementia Care evidence review identifies agency staff reliance as a consistent risk factor for safety incidents, because unfamiliar staff are less likely to recognise early signs of deterioration in individual residents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not the template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff were on each night shift, and ask what the minimum overnight staffing number is for the full 90-bed home."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated Effective as Good at the assessment on 30 January 2025. This domain covers how well staff are trained, whether care plans reflect individual needs, how the home manages healthcare access, and whether nutrition and hydration are well supported. The published summary provides no specific detail on dementia training content, care plan quality, or GP access arrangements. Given the home's specialism in dementia and mental health conditions, the depth of training matters considerably. No direct quotes are available from residents, relatives, or staff for this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a home with dementia as a specialism, the quality of dementia-specific training is one of the most important things to understand. Our review data identifies dementia-specific care as a theme in 12.7% of positive family reviews, and the Good Practice evidence base is clear that general care training is not sufficient for people living with dementia. A Good rating for Effective is a positive foundation, but you should ask specifically what dementia training staff have received, when it was last updated, and whether it covers communication and behavioural approaches rather than just physical care tasks.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans which are regularly updated and reflect personal history, including preferred names, past routines, and communication preferences, are strongly associated with better outcomes for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager whether you and your parent can contribute to the care plan before your parent moves in, and ask how often plans are reviewed. Request an example of the kind of personal history information the home records, to check whether it goes beyond medical needs."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated Caring as Good at the assessment on 30 January 2025. This domain covers how staff interact with residents, whether people are treated with dignity and respect, and whether independence is supported. No specific observations of staff interactions are included in the published summary, and there are no quotes from residents or relatives to illustrate what day-to-day care feels like. Staff warmth and compassion are the two most important themes in our family review data, so the absence of supporting detail here is the main gap in the published evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating for Caring tells you inspectors were satisfied, but it cannot substitute for seeing how staff actually behave with your parent. The Good Practice evidence review highlights that non-verbal communication, including tone of voice, eye contact, and unhurried pace, matters as much as verbal communication for people living with dementia. These are things you can only assess in person.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that person-led care requires staff to know the individual, not just the care plan. Knowing preferred names, personal histories, and communication styles is the foundation of genuinely compassionate practice.","watch_out":"When you visit, notice how staff address residents in the corridor or communal areas. Do they use the person's preferred name? Do they stop and make eye contact, or continue walking? These small interactions are the most reliable indicator of the home's actual caring culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated Responsive as Good at the assessment on 30 January 2025. This domain covers activities and engagement, how the home meets individual preferences, and end-of-life planning. The published summary provides no specific detail on the activity programme, how the home supports residents who cannot join group activities, or how individual preferences are identified and acted on. For a home specialising in dementia and mental health conditions, meaningful daily engagement is particularly important. No quotes from residents or relatives are available for this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and resident happiness together account for meaningful proportions of what families care about in our review data, 21.4% and 27.1% respectively. For your parent, particularly if they are living with dementia, the quality of daily engagement can significantly affect their sense of wellbeing and reduce distressed behaviour. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient, and that one-to-one engagement and meaningful everyday tasks are especially important for people with advanced dementia. The published findings do not tell us how the home approaches this, so it is worth asking directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies Montessori-based and task-based approaches, such as folding, gardening, or simple cooking tasks, as effective for people living with dementia who can no longer participate in formal group activities.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule from the past two weeks, not the planned template. Then ask specifically what happens for residents who cannot join group activities because of advanced dementia or physical disability. Is there a named activity coordinator who provides one-to-one time?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated Well-led as Good at the assessment on 30 January 2025. Mrs Louise Jane Connell is named as Registered Manager and Miss Karen Harkin as Nominated Individual, providing clear accountability at both home and organisational level. The home is operated by Akari Care Limited. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good suggests that leadership has driven meaningful change since the previous inspection. The published summary does not provide detail on management culture, staff voice, or specific governance improvements made during that period.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. The fact that this home moved from Requires Improvement to Good is a positive signal, but understanding what changed and whether those changes are embedded is important. Our family review data shows that communication with families is mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews, and a well-led home should have clear, proactive communication processes. Ask specifically how long the current registered manager has been in post and what they changed after the previous inspection.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns openly, and where managers are visibly present on the floor rather than office-based, consistently perform better on caring and safety measures.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: how long have you been in post here, and what were the main improvements you made after the previous Requires Improvement rating? Their answer will tell you a great deal about whether the improvement is real and sustained."}

  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 over and under 65, including those living with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities. This broad range means residents have varying care needs.. Gaps or open questions remain on Dementia care is provided alongside support for residents with other conditions. The home accepts residents at different stages of dementia. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.