Ascot Grange Care Home – Avery Collection

What families say

Based on 16 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership60
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2021-07-16 · Report published 2021-07-16 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for safety at the June 2021 inspection. No specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, infection control practices, or incident-learning processes was included in the published report text. The home is registered to provide nursing care as well as personal care, which means qualified nurses should be on duty. Beyond these structural facts, the published findings do not give specific evidence of how safety is maintained day to day.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating means inspectors did not find significant concerns at the time of their visit, and that is reassuring as a starting point. However, our Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that agency reliance can undermine the consistency that people with dementia particularly need. With 106 beds, the night shift matters enormously. The inspection report does not tell us how many staff are on overnight or how much of the rota is covered by agency workers. You will need to ask those questions directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety incidents, particularly falls and medication errors, are disproportionately likely to occur on night shifts and during periods of high agency staff use. Consistent, familiar faces reduce distress and improve safety for people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, not just the planned template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff covered each night shift, and ask what the minimum nurse-to-resident ratio is overnight across the 106 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at the June 2021 inspection. Ascot Grange holds dementia as a listed specialism alongside physical disabilities and sensory impairment, which means it should have relevant expertise and adapted care approaches in place. The published report does not include specific information about training content, care plan quality, GP access arrangements, or how the home manages nutrition and hydration. No record review findings or staff competency observations are described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home with dementia specialism should mean that staff understand not just physical health needs but also how dementia affects communication, behaviour, and daily routines. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that need regular updating with family input, not paperwork completed once on admission. Food quality is also a reliable marker of how well a home knows each person: whether your parent gets the texture, temperature, and choice that suits them matters practically and signals how individually they are known. None of this is verifiable from the published report alone.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training quality varies widely even between homes with the same specialism designation. Homes where staff receive training in non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches show measurably better outcomes for residents with advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the home what dementia training all staff (not just senior carers) receive, and when it was last updated. Then ask to see a sample care plan, with personal details removed, to check whether it records individual preferences, life history, and communication needs, or whether it reads like a generic medical summary."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for caring at the June 2021 inspection. No inspector observations of staff interactions, no resident or relative quotes, and no specific examples of dignity practice or person-led care are included in the published report text. The Good rating indicates inspectors did not find evidence of poor practice, but the absence of detail means we cannot tell you specifically what warmth and compassion look like in this home.","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 appear in 55.2%. These are the things families notice most and remember longest. The signals to look for on a visit are concrete and observable: do staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, do they knock before entering a room, do they move at the person's pace rather than their own, and do they acknowledge a resident in distress rather than walking past. The inspection report cannot answer these questions for you, so a visit at an unannounced time of day is essential.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including touch, eye contact, and unhurried body language, is as important as spoken interaction for people with advanced dementia. Homes where staff are observed to use these naturally, rather than only when being watched, show higher resident wellbeing scores.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a staff member passes a resident in the corridor who looks unsettled or confused. Do they stop, make eye contact, and respond calmly, or do they walk past? This small moment tells you more about the culture of care than any conversation with the manager."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for responsiveness at the June 2021 inspection. Ascot Grange lists dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment as specialisms, which should mean care is adapted to individual needs across a range of conditions. The published report includes no detail about activities provision, end-of-life care planning, how complaints are handled, or how the home adapts to changing needs. With 106 beds, the scale of the home means that how activities and individual engagement are organised matters greatly.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"In our family review data, activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. For people with dementia in particular, our Good Practice evidence base shows that group activities are not enough on their own: people who cannot initiate or join a group due to advanced dementia need one-to-one engagement to avoid spending long periods alone and disengaged. A 106-bed home with a dementia specialism should have a structured approach to this, but the inspection report does not confirm whether that is the case here.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-focused individual engagement, including everyday activities such as folding, sorting, or simple gardening, produces significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with moderate to advanced dementia than group entertainment alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join a group session. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that tells you something important about how individually the home thinks about engagement."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for leadership at the June 2021 inspection. A registered manager, Mrs Natasha Southall, and a nominated individual are named in the published report, indicating a formal governance structure. No further detail about management visibility, staff culture, quality monitoring processes, or how the home responds to concerns is included in the published text. The stability of the current management team since the inspection cannot be confirmed from the published information alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, according to our Good Practice evidence base. A Good rating in 2021 is a positive sign, but it is now over three years old. Management changes, occupancy pressures, and staff turnover can shift a home's culture significantly between inspections. In our family review data, communication with families appears in 11.5% of positive reviews, and families consistently value knowing that someone accountable is reachable when things go wrong. Confirming that the registered manager named in the report is still in post, and how long they have been there, is a straightforward but important question.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that homes with a stable, long-tenured registered manager consistently outperform those with frequent management changes on resident wellbeing, staff retention, and complaint resolution rates.","watch_out":"Ask specifically whether Mrs Natasha Southall is still the registered manager and how long she has been in post. Then ask how the home would contact you if your parent had a fall, a health change, or a difficult day, and what the expected timescale for that contact would be."}

  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 at Ascot Grange supports people with sensory impairments and physical disabilities, as well as those living with dementia. They welcome both younger adults under 65 and older residents.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those with dementia, the home provides specialist care tailored to individual needs. The team understands the importance of creating a supportive environment for residents with memory challenges. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.