L & M Healthcare Cherry Tree House

What families say

Based on 19 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity74
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality60
• Healthcare58
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2024-02-13 · Report published 2024-02-13 · Inspected 9 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"Cherry Tree House received a Requires Improvement rating for Safe at the January 2024 inspection. This is the one domain that did not reach Good, meaning inspectors identified specific concerns that had not been fully addressed at the time of their visit. The published summary does not detail the precise nature of these concerns. The home improved overall from its previous Requires Improvement rating, so there is a positive direction of travel, but the safety domain has not yet followed the same trajectory. Families should treat this as a priority area to explore before making a decision.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement rating for Safe is the finding that should weigh most heavily in your thinking. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety issues are most likely to appear on night shifts and in homes with high agency staff turnover, because neither of those situations provides the consistency that people with dementia need. The published findings do not tell us whether night staffing or agency use contributed to the safety rating here, which is exactly why you need to ask. Inspectors do not award Requires Improvement in this domain lightly, and families in our review data consistently cite staff attentiveness as one of their top concerns. Visit at a time you have not pre-arranged, and pay attention to how quickly call bells are answered and how staff move through the building.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety incidents in care homes are disproportionately concentrated in overnight hours and in periods of high agency staff use, when familiarity with individual residents is lowest. A Requires Improvement in Safe warrants direct, specific questions about both.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the template version. Count how many named permanent staff appear on the night shifts compared with agency names, and ask what the specific safety findings from the January 2024 inspection were and what has changed since."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain covers whether staff have the skills and knowledge to meet residents' needs, whether care plans are personalised, and whether residents have access to healthcare professionals including GPs. Cherry Tree House supports a notably wide range of needs, including dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, which places significant demands on staff training. A Good rating here suggests inspectors were satisfied with the overall standard of practice, though the published summary does not provide granular detail on specific training programmes or care plan content.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective is reassuring, particularly given how varied the needs of residents at this home are. For a parent with dementia, what matters most within this domain is whether staff genuinely understand how dementia affects behaviour and communication, not just whether they have completed a training course. Our Good Practice evidence base shows that the quality of dementia training, specifically whether it covers non-verbal communication and behavioural responses to unmet need, matters far more than the number of hours completed. The inspection does not give us that level of detail, so you will need to ask the manager what dementia training staff complete, when they last did it, and how it is applied day to day. Also ask how often your parent's care plan would be reviewed and whether you would be invited to contribute.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans function best as living documents updated with family input after every significant change in a person's condition. Homes that review plans reactively rather than proactively tend to miss early signs of deterioration.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if needed) and ask how recently it was updated. Then ask: if my parent's condition changed overnight, who would update the plan, and would I be called?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Caring domain Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain reflects whether staff treat the people who live at the home with kindness, respect, and genuine concern for their wellbeing. A Good rating here is one of the most meaningful findings for families, because it is the domain most directly shaped by the moment-to-moment behaviour of front-line staff. The published summary does not include specific observations or quotes from this inspection, so we cannot point to particular examples of what inspectors saw. The rating alone, however, represents a positive judgement.","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%. A Good rating for Caring means inspectors saw enough evidence of both to be satisfied, but a rating is not the same as a guarantee. When you visit, watch the ordinary moments: does a staff member stop to speak to a resident in the corridor without being prompted? Do they use the person's preferred name? Are they moving at a pace that suits the resident rather than the rota? These are the signals that families in our data consistently describe as the difference between a home that feels safe and one that feels genuinely caring.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including tone of voice, eye contact, and physical proximity, is as important as spoken language for people with advanced dementia. Inspectors observing a caring environment will note these interactions, but families can observe them directly on a visit.","watch_out":"During your visit, find a quiet moment to watch how staff interact with residents who cannot easily communicate verbally. Do staff slow down, make eye contact, and speak directly to the person? Or do they talk over them to a colleague? This is one of the clearest indicators of genuine person-centred care."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain covers whether the home adapts its care and activities to meet each person's individual needs, preferences, and history, including how it handles complaints and plans for end of life. The home's specialism list is broad, covering dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments, which means the expectation of responsiveness to individual need is high. The published summary does not include specific examples of activity programmes, individual engagement, or complaint outcomes.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Responsive is encouraging, but it is the domain where the gap between an inspection finding and your parent's daily experience can be widest. Our review data shows that resident happiness is cited in 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities and engagement in 21.4%. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that what matters most is not a busy group activity board but whether your parent, as an individual, has something meaningful to do each day. For someone with advanced dementia who cannot join a group, that means one-to-one time with a member of staff. The inspection gives no specific detail on this, so it is an important question to raise directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett review found that Montessori-based approaches and familiar household tasks, such as folding, sorting, or simple cooking activities, significantly reduce agitation and improve wellbeing for people with dementia, more reliably than structured group entertainment.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident who cannot leave their room or join group sessions. If the answer is vague or defaults to group activities only, 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 2024 inspection. This domain assesses whether the home has effective management, a positive culture, and systems to monitor quality and act on concerns. The overall improvement from Requires Improvement to Good reflects positively on the management team's ability to drive change, even if the safety domain has not yet fully followed suit. The nominated individual responsible for the service is Mr Paul Fletcher, operating under London And Manchester Healthcare (Romiley) Ltd. The published summary does not include specific detail on manager tenure, staff culture, or the governance mechanisms inspectors observed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. A home that has improved from Requires Improvement to Good has demonstrated that its management can respond to inspection findings, which is a positive sign. However, the continuing Requires Improvement in Safe suggests that the improvement work is not yet complete. Families in our review data mention communication with management in 11.5% of positive reviews, often noting that a visible, accessible manager makes a significant difference to their confidence in the home. Ask how long the current manager has been in post, whether they are on site during the week, and how they would contact you if something changed with your parent's care.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of reprisal consistently outperform those where a top-down culture suppresses feedback. Ask staff, not just the manager, how comfortable they feel raising a concern.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what were the specific findings that led to the Requires Improvement in Safe, what actions have been taken since January 2024, and has a follow-up inspection been conducted or scheduled? A confident, detailed answer suggests the leadership is on top of it. A vague or defensive answer is itself informative."}

  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 supports residents with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. They also have experience caring for people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff work with residents living with dementia, adapting their approach to each person's cognitive needs. The home accepts residents with various stages of dementia alongside other complex conditions. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.