Fairways Care Home

What families say

Based on 6 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness68
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-04-06 · Report published 2018-04-06

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the February 2018 inspection. This means inspectors were satisfied with how the home managed risks, staffing, and medicines at the time of the visit. No specific observations, staffing ratios, or incident data are recorded in the published summary. The inspection is now more than six years old, so the current picture may differ. No concerns were flagged.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a baseline requirement, not a ceiling. Our Good Practice evidence highlights that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in smaller residential homes: for 28 residents, you should know exactly how many staff are present overnight and whether any are permanent rather than agency workers. The published findings give you no detail on either point. Agency reliance is a particular concern in dementia care because familiar faces matter enormously to someone who may not remember who the new person is. Make this your first practical question on a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance undermines the consistency of care that people with dementia rely on, and that night staffing ratios are where safety risks most commonly emerge in residential settings.","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 were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and confirm the total number of staff on duty overnight for all 28 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the February 2018 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and how well the home meets nutritional needs. No specific detail is recorded in the published text about care plan content, GP access arrangements, medicines administration, or dementia training programmes. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which means inspectors would have considered dementia-specific practice as part of the assessment.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating tells you the home met the standard at inspection, but it does not tell you whether your parent's care plan would reflect the things that matter to them specifically: their preferred name, their daily routine, their food likes and dislikes, or their history. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed regularly with family involvement, not completed once at admission. Dementia-specific training content also varies widely between homes even when overall ratings are similar. Ask what training staff receive and how recently it was updated.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plan quality as a key predictor of person-led dementia care, with regular family-inclusive reviews associated with better outcomes than plans completed at admission and rarely revisited.","watch_out":"Ask to see the care plan structure the home uses and ask specifically: how often is a care plan formally reviewed, and is the family invited to take part in that review? Then ask what dementia training staff complete and when the last cohort of staff were trained."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the February 2018 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and how well staff support residents to remain as independent as possible. No specific inspector observations of staff interactions, no resident quotes, and no relative feedback are recorded in the published summary. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with caring practice at the time of the visit.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive family reviews across more than 5,400 UK care homes. It is also the hardest thing to assess from a published report when no direct observations are recorded. The signals to look for on a visit are specific: do staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, do they make eye contact and pause rather than rushing past, and do they respond calmly and patiently when someone is confused or distressed? These behaviours are more revealing than any policy document.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication, unhurried pace, and use of preferred names are as important as verbal interaction for people with dementia, particularly those who have lost the ability to express preferences clearly.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in the corridor or communal room. Do they stop, make eye contact, and use the person's name? Or do they walk past without acknowledgement? This is one of the most reliable visible signals of a caring culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the February 2018 inspection. This domain covers activities, engagement, individuality, and how the home responds to changing needs including end-of-life care. No specific detail about the activity programme, one-to-one engagement, or end-of-life planning is recorded in the published summary. The home supports people with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, which means responsiveness to very different individual needs is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities engagement is cited in 21.4% of positive family reviews, but our Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with advanced dementia or those who cannot participate in planned sessions. What matters most for your parent is whether the home offers one-to-one engagement, whether staff understand how to involve someone in everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, or gardening, and whether the activity offer is genuinely tailored or simply a posted timetable. The published findings give you no detail on any of this, so you will need to ask and observe directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies individualised, Montessori-influenced approaches and the use of everyday household tasks as particularly effective for people with dementia who cannot engage with formal group activities.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual activity records for the past two weeks, not the planned schedule. Then ask specifically: if my parent cannot join a group session, what would a member of staff do with them one to one on a quiet afternoon?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the February 2018 inspection. A registered manager, Mrs Alison Jane Yarnley, is recorded as in post, and a nominated individual is named, indicating a clear governance structure at the time of inspection. No specific detail about management visibility, staff culture, complaint handling, or audit activity is recorded in the published summary. The inspection is more than six years old, which is a significant gap for assessing current leadership stability.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in care homes, according to Good Practice research. A Good Well-led rating from 2018 tells you the leadership met the standard then, but it cannot tell you whether the same manager is still in post, whether staffing has remained stable, or how the home has responded to the significant changes in the care sector since that inspection. Communication with families is cited in 11.5% of positive family reviews as a key satisfaction driver. Ask directly how the current manager keeps families informed and how accessible they are day to day.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability and a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear as the strongest structural predictors of sustained care quality over time.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in their current role and whether the registered manager named in the 2018 inspection is still in post. Then ask: if something changed with my parent overnight, how and when would I be told?"}

  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 Fairways has experience caring for people with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. They support residents across different age groups, including adults under 65 who need residential care.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, Fairways provides specialist support as part of their residential care service. The home accepts people at different stages of their dementia journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.