Coast Care Centre, Bexhill | Coast Care Group

What families say

The staff come across as genuinely friendly, according to families who visit. People mention feeling welcomed when they arrive and appreciate how approachable the team seems. Several relatives have noticed their loved ones becoming more settled and cheerful after moving in.

Based on 21 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership42
• Resident happiness65

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-01-06 · Report published 2023-01-06 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Safe was rated Good at the December 2022 inspection. This means inspectors were satisfied that the arrangements for keeping people safe, including staffing, medicines management, and infection control, met the required standard. The home improved from its previous Requires Improvement rating in this domain. No specific detail about night staffing ratios, falls management, or agency staff use is included in the published summary. The improvement in this domain is a positive direction of travel.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Safe tells you that inspectors did not find the kind of serious gaps that would put your parent at risk, which is reassuring given the previous Requires Improvement rating. However, the Good Practice evidence from the rapid evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) highlights that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and this inspection does not tell you what the overnight cover looks like for 44 beds. Agency staff reliance is another known risk factor for inconsistency of care, and again that detail is absent here. Do not rely on the domain rating alone: use the specific questions in the checklist to get the numbers you need.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review finds that night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance are the two most common factors in safety incidents in care homes. A Good rating for Safe should prompt you to ask for the specifics, not assume they are satisfactory.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual staffing rota, not a template. Count the names on the night shifts and ask which of those are permanent staff versus agency. For 44 beds with a dementia specialism, you want to see a registered nurse present overnight."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Effective was rated Good at the December 2022 inspection. This domain covers whether staff have the right training, whether care plans reflect what people actually need, and whether healthcare arrangements, including GP access and medicines management, are working. The home lists dementia, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities as specialisms, which means inspectors would have been looking for evidence of relevant training and tailored care approaches. No specific examples from care plans, training records, or healthcare interactions are included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective is a reasonable indicator that the basics of training and care planning are in place. However, dementia care in particular requires more than generic training: the Good Practice evidence base shows that staff who understand non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches make a measurable difference to the wellbeing of people who can no longer express their needs verbally. The inspection does not tell us what dementia-specific training staff have received or how often care plans are reviewed with family input. Food quality is also part of this domain, and 20.9% of positive family reviews in our data mention food by name as a significant factor in satisfaction. That detail is absent here too.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review found that care plans used as living documents, updated with family input and reviewed at least every three months, are one of the strongest predictors of good outcomes for people with dementia. Ask to see how frequently that happens here.","watch_out":"Ask the manager when your parent's care plan would first be drawn up, who would be involved, and how often it would be formally reviewed. Ask whether families are routinely invited to those reviews and what happens if a family member disagrees with an aspect of the plan."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Caring was rated Good at the December 2022 inspection. This domain covers whether staff treat people with warmth, dignity, and respect, and whether people's independence is supported. The improvement from the previous inspection applies here as well. No direct inspector observations, resident quotes, or relative feedback are included in the published summary for this domain. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but the absence of specific detail means it is not possible to say exactly what they observed.","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 together account for 55.2%. These are the things families notice first and remember longest. A Good rating for Caring is a positive signal, but it tells you more about what inspectors did not find than what they specifically saw. The things that matter most to families, whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they move without rushing, whether they notice and respond to distress before it escalates, are things you can only observe in person. One visit at a quieter time of day, mid-morning on a weekday rather than during a scheduled event, will tell you more than a rating alone.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review confirms that non-verbal communication and the pace of staff interactions are as important as spoken words for people with dementia. An unhurried approach during personal care and at mealtimes is one of the most consistent indicators of genuine person-centred practice.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas when no one is formally observing them. Do they make eye contact, crouch to speak to someone in a wheelchair, or use the person's name? Ask a member of staff what your parent's preferred name is and how they would want to spend a typical morning."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Responsive was rated Good at the December 2022 inspection. This domain covers whether the home tailors care and activities to individual preferences, whether people can maintain their identity and interests, and whether end-of-life planning is in place. The home supports a wide range of needs including dementia, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, and sensory impairment, which means responsiveness to individual difference is particularly important here. No specific detail about the activity programme, individual engagement, or end-of-life arrangements appears in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness or settled contentment accounts for 27.1%. A home that is truly responsive does not rely only on group activities: for someone with advanced dementia who cannot join a group session, what happens in the hours between? The Good Practice evidence review highlights individual, one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks and sensory activities, as particularly important for people who have moved beyond group participation. The inspection does not tell us whether this home offers that level of individual attention. Resident happiness is also something you need to see for yourself: a quick group activity session staged during an inspection visit does not tell you what happens on a Tuesday afternoon in January.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies Montessori-based and everyday-activity approaches, such as folding, sorting, and simple domestic tasks, as having strong evidence for maintaining wellbeing in people with moderate to advanced dementia. Ask whether the home uses these approaches for residents who cannot join structured group activities.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual activity schedule from the past two weeks, not the planned template. Then ask what is offered specifically to someone who cannot participate in group activities. If the answer is vague, that is a gap worth pressing on before you commit."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"Well-led was rated Requires Improvement at the December 2022 inspection, the one domain that did not reach a Good rating despite the overall improvement. This rating means inspectors identified weaknesses in governance, oversight, or accountability at the time of the inspection. The home has two registered managers listed, Miss Teresa Leah Small and Mr William Andrew Poore, alongside a Nominated Individual, Mr Kevin Neil Dewhurst. No specific detail about what the governance concerns were, or what improvement actions were taken, appears in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership quality is one of the strongest predictors of whether a care home sustains good practice over time. Our Good Practice evidence review found that leadership stability, a manager who knows staff and residents by name and who creates a culture where concerns can be raised openly, is consistently associated with better outcomes. A Requires Improvement rating in Well-led means inspectors found the oversight systems were not reliably in place. This matters for your parent because it affects whether problems get identified and corrected before they escalate. The presence of two registered managers could indicate a genuinely shared leadership model, or it could indicate instability; you cannot tell from the published summary alone. This is the area to probe most carefully on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies leadership stability and a culture where staff feel able to speak up without fear as the two factors most reliably associated with sustained quality in care homes. A Requires Improvement in Well-led is a prompt to ask direct questions about manager tenure and how concerns are handled.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long each of the two registered managers has been in post, and who is on site on a typical weekday versus at weekends. Ask how a family member would raise a concern and what would happen next. If you cannot speak to a manager in person during a visit, that is itself a relevant piece of information."}

  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 supports adults of all ages with various needs including dementia, learning disabilities, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. They've cared for younger adults with early-onset dementia alongside older residents.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home has experience supporting people at different stages of dementia, including younger adults with early-onset conditions. Families have mentioned seeing positive changes in relatives with dementia after they've settled in. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.