Mountbatten Grange Care Home – Care UK

What families say

Families describe how staff remember their names and ask about their lives, not just their relative's care. The home runs regular day trips and entertainment that residents genuinely enjoy participating in. There's a real sense of community here, with the on-site cafe becoming a natural meeting point for residents and visitors alike.

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness72
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership74
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-12-18 · Report published 2019-12-18

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Mountbatten Grange received a Good rating for Safe at its October 2019 inspection. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. The published text does not include specific detail about staffing ratios, agency use, or how the home logs and learns from falls or other incidents. No concerns were identified by inspectors at the time.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating is a meaningful baseline, but for a 72-bed nursing home caring for people with dementia, you need more than a headline rating. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety most often slips on night shifts, where staffing is typically thinner and agency cover more common. The inspection text does not record night staffing numbers, so you cannot assess this from the published report alone. Ask the manager directly: how many permanent carers and how many agency staff were on the dementia unit last Tuesday night? That single question will tell you more than any rating.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent care quality, particularly for people with dementia who depend on staff knowing their individual routines and communication styles.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many night shifts on the dementia unit were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Mountbatten Grange received a Good rating for Effective at its October 2019 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, nutrition, and healthcare access. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies inspectors expected and assessed dementia-specific practice. No detail about care plan review frequency, GP access arrangements, or the content of dementia training is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a home that lists dementia as a specialism, the Effective domain is where you most want to see detail, and the published text is unfortunately thin. Good Practice research involving 61 studies confirms that care plans need to function as living documents, updated as your parent's needs change, not filed and forgotten. A specialism in dementia also means you should expect staff to have training that goes beyond a basic induction. Ask what dementia training staff have completed in the last 12 months, and ask when your parent's care plan would next be reviewed and whether you would be invited to that conversation.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that regular, dementia-specific staff training, covering non-verbal communication, behavioural responses, and person-centred approaches, is strongly associated with better outcomes for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training all staff (including night staff and agency workers) have completed in the past year, and request an example of how a care plan has been updated in response to a change in a resident's condition."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Mountbatten Grange received a Good rating for Caring at its October 2019 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether people are supported to retain their independence. The published summary does not include any direct quotes from residents or relatives, and no specific observations about staff interactions, use of preferred names, or pace of care are recorded.","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 account for a further 55.2%. These are the things families notice immediately on a visit. Because the published inspection text contains no specific observations or quotes for this domain, you cannot verify the rating through the report alone. On your visit, watch how staff greet your parent when you walk into a room together. Do they use their preferred name? Do they crouch down to eye level? Do they move without rushing? These small behaviours are the most reliable signals of a genuinely caring culture.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research consistently finds that non-verbal communication, tone of voice, physical proximity, and unhurried pace, matters as much as words for people with dementia, particularly those who have lost fluent speech.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch an unscripted corridor or lounge interaction between a staff member and a resident. Notice whether the staff member uses the resident's preferred name, makes eye contact, and pauses rather than rushing. If staff seem unsure of a resident's name, that is a signal worth taking seriously."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Mountbatten Grange received a Good rating for Responsive at its October 2019 inspection. This domain covers how well the home tailors care to individual needs, the activities programme, end-of-life care, and how it handles complaints. The published text does not describe specific activities, one-to-one engagement provision, or how the home supports people who cannot join group sessions.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness accounts for 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities account for a further 21.4%. For people with dementia, activities are not a nice-to-have; Good Practice research links meaningful occupation directly to reduced distress and better wellbeing. The inspection did not record what the activities programme looks like at Mountbatten Grange, which means you need to investigate this yourself. A key question for a 72-bed home with a dementia specialism is what happens for people who cannot participate in group activities, because group-only provision effectively excludes the people who need engagement most.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and individualised activity approaches, including familiar household tasks and one-to-one engagement, produce measurably better outcomes for people with dementia than group entertainment models alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what happened last Tuesday for a resident with advanced dementia who could not join the group session. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that tells you something important about how the home defines meaningful activity."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Mountbatten Grange received a Good rating for Well-led at its October 2019 inspection. A named registered manager, Debbie Winwood, was in post, and a nominated individual, Rachel Louise Harvey, was identified. The published text does not describe management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home acts on feedback from residents and families.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of consistent care quality. Communication with families accounts for 11.5% of positive family reviews, and our Good Practice evidence base highlights that homes where staff feel able to speak up tend to perform better over time. The inspection confirmed a named manager was in place in 2019, but five years is a long time. You need to find out whether the same manager is still in post, how long other senior staff have been there, and whether there have been significant staffing changes. A stable senior team is a good sign; a series of management changes is a reason to ask more questions.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research found that leadership stability is one of the most reliable predictors of quality trajectory: homes with consistent registered managers tend to maintain or improve ratings, while homes with frequent management turnover show greater variability in care quality.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post, and ask the same question of the senior carer on the dementia unit. If the answer involves multiple managers in the past two years, ask what drove those changes and how the home maintained continuity of care during transitions."}

  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 under and over 65, including those with physical disabilities and mental health conditions. They also provide dementia care across dedicated areas of the home.. Gaps or open questions remain on While dementia care staff are described as friendly and caring, families should ask specifically about staffing ratios on the dementia floor. Some relatives have found that supervision levels don't always match the complex needs of residents with advanced dementia, particularly around personal care consistency and keeping track of belongings. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.