Courtlands Care Home

What families say

What strikes visitors is how content residents appear in their daily lives here. Family members describe seeing their relatives settled and expressing real satisfaction with their new home.

Based on 5 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
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-10-16 · Report published 2018-10-16 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the October 2020 inspection. No specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls recording, infection control, or night cover is included in the published inspection text. A 2023 desk-based review did not identify concerns requiring reassessment. The home cares for people with dementia and physical disabilities, both of which carry specific safety considerations. The current level of publicly available evidence does not allow for detailed verification of specific safety practices.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the evidence behind it is now over four years old. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most commonly slips in care homes. In our review data, families who raise concerns almost always mention either staffing levels or response times at night. With 35 residents, including people with dementia, you need to know how many permanent staff are on duty after 8pm, not just that the rating is Good.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios and the proportion of agency staff are two of the strongest predictors of safety incidents in residential dementia care. Consistency of staff, particularly overnight, is directly linked to residents feeling settled and secure.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for last week, not the template. Count how many permanent staff were on each night shift versus agency workers, and ask what the minimum number of staff on duty overnight would ever be for 35 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the October 2020 inspection. The published text does not include specific detail about care plan content, dementia training programmes, GP access arrangements, medication management, or food quality. The 2023 review found no evidence requiring the rating to change. The home is registered to provide specialist care for people with dementia, which implies some structured approach to effective care, but the specifics are not available in the published record.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home means much more than following procedures. It means care plans that describe your parent as a person, not just a list of medical needs, and staff who know what matters to them on a difficult day. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed with families at least every three months. Food quality is also a reliable indicator of whether a home pays attention to individual needs. Neither of these is verifiable from the current published evidence, so you will need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that dementia-specific training content matters more than training hours. Staff who understand non-verbal communication and behaviour as communication are significantly more effective at supporting people with dementia than those who have only completed generic care qualifications.","watch_out":"Ask to see the care plan format used at the home and request an example of how a plan is updated when a resident's needs change. Ask how frequently families are formally involved in reviewing the plan, and what dementia-specific training all care staff have completed in the last 12 months."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the October 2020 inspection. No specific inspector observations, resident testimony, or relative feedback is included in the published text for this report. The rating indicates that inspectors were satisfied with the quality of caring interactions at the time of the visit. Given that the inspection is now over four years old, the evidence behind this rating cannot be confirmed from the published record alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important factor in family satisfaction, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews in our dataset of over 3,600 families. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These qualities are not captured by a rating alone. They show up in small, observable things: whether staff knock before entering a room, whether they use your parent's preferred name, whether they move with unhurried confidence during personal care. The only way to assess this is to visit and observe directly.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication for people with advanced dementia. Staff who physically lower themselves to eye level, maintain calm tone, and allow adequate response time produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than staff who rely on verbal instruction alone.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas. Notice whether staff make eye contact, use preferred names, and allow residents time to respond. A single rushed or dismissive interaction is more informative than anything written in a report."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the October 2020 inspection. The published text does not describe specific activities, engagement with individual preferences, approaches to advanced dementia, or end-of-life care planning. The home's registration covers dementia care, which implies some responsiveness to individual needs, but nothing specific is verifiable from the available record. The 2023 review did not identify concerns about this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is a significant driver of family satisfaction in our review data, with 27.1% of positive reviews mentioning it. For people with dementia, responsiveness often means the difference between a day that has purpose and one that passes without meaning. Good Practice evidence strongly supports one-to-one activities for people who can no longer join group sessions. Ask specifically about this because group activity programmes, however well designed, cannot reach everyone.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based approaches and the use of familiar everyday tasks, such as folding laundry, arranging flowers, or simple cooking activities, produce better engagement outcomes for people with dementia than structured entertainment-based group activities.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule for the current week and the previous week. Check whether activities run seven days a week and ask how the home supports residents with advanced dementia who cannot participate in groups. Ask whether there is a dedicated activity coordinator or whether activities are fitted around care tasks."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the October 2020 inspection. The home has a named registered manager and a nominated individual recorded on the registration. No detail about management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, complaint handling, or occupancy trends is available in the published inspection text. Leadership stability is a key quality predictor, but the current published record does not confirm how long the registered manager has been in post or what changes have occurred since 2020.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"In our family review data, 23.4% of positive reviews mention management quality as a reason for satisfaction. Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory: homes where the manager has been in post consistently tend to maintain or improve their standards, while homes experiencing management turnover often show declining quality before it becomes visible in inspection ratings. You need to ask directly how long the current manager has been in post and whether there have been significant staffing changes since 2020.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of reprisal consistently outperform others on safety and care quality measures. A visible, stable manager who is known by name to both residents and families is one of the most reliable indicators of a healthy internal culture.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly how long they have been in post and whether there have been any significant changes in the senior care team since 2020. Ask how staff are supported to raise concerns, and whether there have been any safeguarding referrals or complaints in the last 12 months and how they were resolved."}

  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 Courtlands provides specialist dementia care alongside support for physical disabilities. The team understands the complexities of caring for residents over 65 who may be managing multiple health challenges.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the home offers dedicated support from staff who understand the condition. Families can feel reassured that their loved ones' changing needs will be met with both expertise and patience. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.