Highfield Manor Care Home

What families say

People often mention feeling welcomed from their very first visit. The atmosphere strikes visitors as friendly and approachable, with staff taking time to show families around properly. Residents seem to form real friendships here, both with each other and with the carers who support them daily.

Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness68
• Activities & engagement55
• Food quality55
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-12-04 · Report published 2019-12-04 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for safety at the February 2021 inspection. The published report does not include specific observations about staffing levels, night staffing ratios, falls management, or medicines practice. A July 2023 review did not identify any new safety concerns. The home cares for up to 25 residents, which is a relatively small setting. No concerns about infection control or the physical environment are recorded in the available findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the inspection text does not tell you the detail that matters most when your parent has dementia. Our Good Practice evidence review found that safety most commonly slips on night shifts, where staffing is thinnest, and in homes where agency staff cover gaps because agency workers do not know your parent's routines or triggers. With 25 beds and a dementia specialism, you want to know exactly how many permanent staff are on duty after 8pm and how often the home uses agency cover. That question is not answered by the available published findings, so you need to ask it directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios and reliance on agency staff are among the strongest predictors of whether safety standards hold between inspection visits.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual night-shift rota, not the template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and ask what the minimum staffing level is overnight for 25 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at the February 2021 inspection. The published text does not describe care plan content, review frequency, dementia training programmes, GP access arrangements, or how food and nutrition needs are managed. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to relevant training, but no specific training content is described. No concerns about effectiveness were identified at the July 2023 review.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness covers the things that protect your parent's health over time: whether care plans are detailed and updated as needs change, whether staff have proper dementia training rather than a one-off induction module, and whether the home spots health changes early and gets the GP involved promptly. Food quality is also part of this picture. Our review data shows food features in 20.9% of positive family reviews, and the Good Practice evidence is clear that poor nutrition in dementia often goes unnoticed until it causes a crisis. None of these specifics are covered in the published report, so they are questions you need to ask on your visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed at least monthly for people with dementia, with family input treated as essential rather than optional.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (with the resident's name removed) and check whether it includes the person's life history, preferred name, food likes and dislikes, and how staff should respond when the person becomes anxious. A generic template is a warning sign."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for caring at the February 2021 inspection. The published text does not include specific inspector observations of staff interactions, use of preferred names, or how staff respond to distress. No quotes from residents or relatives about staff kindness are available in the published findings. No concerns about dignity or respect were raised at the July 2023 review.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews. Compassion and dignity feature in 55.2%. The inspection confirmed the home met the Good standard for caring, but without specific observations it is hard to know what this looks like in practice. The Good Practice evidence tells us that non-verbal communication matters as much as words for people with advanced dementia: whether a carer crouches to eye level, whether they touch a shoulder gently, whether they give someone time to respond. These are things you can observe yourself on an unannounced visit. Walk the corridors at a mealtime and watch how staff speak to and move around the people who live here.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that person-led care requires staff to know each individual well enough to read non-verbal cues, and that this knowledge takes time to build, making low staff turnover a key indicator of genuinely caring practice.","watch_out":"During your visit, listen for whether staff use residents' preferred names rather than generic terms. Notice whether interactions feel unhurried. If you see a resident who looks distressed or unsettled, watch how staff respond: do they stop what they are doing, get close, and speak calmly, or do they call across the room?"}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for responsiveness at the February 2021 inspection. The published text does not describe the activities programme, individual engagement for residents who cannot join groups, or how the home tailors care to personal preferences and life histories. The home's dementia specialism suggests awareness of individual need, but no specific examples are recorded. No concerns about responsiveness were raised at the July 2023 review.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement feature in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. For people with dementia, the Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are not enough: your parent needs individual engagement, particularly if she or he can no longer follow group conversations or activities. This might mean a carer sitting with your parent while they fold laundry, look through a photo album, or tend to a pot plant. These everyday, purposeful moments are often more meaningful than a scheduled craft session. The inspection does not tell us whether Highfield House provides this kind of individual engagement, so it is a key question to raise.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday-task approaches to individual engagement significantly reduce distress and improve wellbeing for people with moderate to advanced dementia, compared with group activity programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator (or, if the home does not have one, the manager) to describe what happens for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join a group session. Ask for a specific example from last week, not a general description of what the home tries to do."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for leadership at the February 2021 inspection. A named registered manager is recorded in the published findings. The July 2023 review did not identify concerns about leadership or governance. The home is run by Highfield House Care Home (Heywood) Limited, with a nominated individual also recorded. No specific observations about management visibility, staff culture, or how the home handles complaints and learning from incidents are available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our Good Practice evidence identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality over time. A registered manager who has been in post for several years, who knows residents by name, and who staff feel they can speak to honestly is a very different proposition from a home where leadership has changed repeatedly. Management quality features in 23.4% of positive family reviews. The published inspection confirms a manager is registered and in post, but it does not tell you how long she has been there, how visible she is day to day, or how the home responds when something goes wrong. These are questions worth asking directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that homes where staff feel empowered to raise concerns without fear, and where managers act on those concerns visibly, consistently perform better on care quality indicators between inspection visits.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long she has been in her current role and how long most of the senior care staff have worked at the home. A high turnover of managers or senior carers in the past two years is worth exploring further, particularly in a small home where consistency matters greatly for people with dementia."}

  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 living with dementia and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff show particular skill in supporting residents with vascular dementia and challenging behaviours. Their patient approach has helped residents settle successfully even after difficult experiences elsewhere. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.