Lydgate Lodge Care Home

What families say

Visitors mention feeling welcomed by staff who are genuinely friendly and attentive. The approach here seems to centre on treating each resident as an individual, with their own preferences and routines.

Based on 9 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth65
• Compassion & dignity65
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement55
• Food quality55
• Healthcare60
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness60

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-07-04 · Report published 2019-07-04 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection, an improvement from the previous Requires Improvement rating. This covers medicines management, staffing levels, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. The published report does not include specific observations, staffing ratios, or detail on falls or medicines processes. The 2023 monitoring review found no evidence to suggest safety had deteriorated since the Good rating was awarded.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a 64-bed home with a dementia specialism, safety questions centre on night staffing, agency reliance, and how the home responds when something goes wrong. Good Practice research consistently identifies the night shift as the period when safety is most likely to slip, particularly in larger homes. The published findings do not give you the detail needed to assess this independently, which is why asking for actual rotas rather than template staffing plans is important. The improvement from Requires Improvement signals that real problems were identified and addressed before 2019, but you cannot verify from public records alone whether those improvements have been sustained across five years.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent care for people with dementia, because familiarity with individual behaviour and communication patterns is central to safe, responsive support.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual staffing rota, not a template. Count how many permanent staff worked overnight across seven nights, and ask what proportion of night shifts in the last month were covered by agency or bank staff."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and how well staff understand and meet individual needs. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to relevant staff training, but the published report does not describe training content, care plan processes, GP access arrangements, or food and nutrition in specific terms.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families considering a home with a dementia specialism, the Effective rating matters because it tells you whether staff have the knowledge to recognise when your parent's needs are changing. Good Practice evidence from 61 studies found that care plans function best when they are treated as living documents reviewed regularly with family input, rather than completed on admission and filed. Food quality is also a meaningful signal: in our review data, 20.9% of positive family reviews mention food and mealtimes by name, often as a marker of whether the home genuinely cares about the person. You cannot assess any of this from the published findings alone, so a visit and direct questions are essential.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training that includes communication, behaviour understanding, and person-centred approaches produces measurable improvements in resident wellbeing, but training that is completed once on induction without ongoing refreshment has limited long-term effect.","watch_out":"Ask to see the dementia training record for two or three members of staff currently working on the unit. Check whether training was completed once at induction or whether there is evidence of refresher training within the last 12 months."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This is the domain most directly concerned with whether staff are kind, whether dignity is respected, and whether your parent is treated as an individual. The published report does not include direct inspector observations of staff interactions, resident quotes about how they feel, or examples of preferred names being used or privacy being maintained. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but the absence of specifics limits what can be confirmed independently.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are the things families notice first on a visit and return to most often in their accounts of why a home works or does not. The inspection confirms a Good rating but cannot substitute for your own observation. On a visit, watch whether staff make eye contact, use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, and move without hurry when supporting someone. These small details are the clearest signal of whether person-centred care is genuine or written into a policy.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including tone of voice, eye contact, and physical pace, is as important as spoken words for people with dementia, and that staff who understand this tend to produce measurably lower levels of distress in the people they support.","watch_out":"During your visit, observe an interaction between a staff member and a resident who is not expecting a visitor. Notice whether the staff member uses a name, makes eye contact, and waits for a response before moving on, or whether the interaction is task-focused and hurried."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This covers activities, engagement, respect for individuality, complaint handling, and end-of-life care. Dementia is a stated specialism, which suggests some tailoring of provision, but the published report does not describe specific activities, group or individual programmes, whether residents can pursue their own interests, or how the home handles complaints or end-of-life planning.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"In our review data, 27.1% of positive family reviews specifically mention resident happiness and contentment, and 21.4% mention activities. For people with dementia, the Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient: one-to-one engagement, including everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, or gardening alongside a staff member, produces better outcomes than structured group sessions for people in later stages of the condition. The published findings cannot tell you whether Lydgate Lodge provides this kind of individual engagement. This is one of the most important questions to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that Montessori-based approaches and the use of familiar everyday household tasks as engagement tools reduce distress and maintain a sense of competence and identity in people with moderate to advanced dementia, particularly for those who can no longer participate in group activities.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what happens on a typical afternoon for a resident who cannot join a group session. If the answer involves television or sitting in the lounge, ask specifically what one-to-one time that person receives each week and from whom."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection, improving from Requires Improvement at the previous inspection. A named registered manager, Ben O Makwar, is recorded for the home, alongside a nominated individual. The improvement across all five domains between inspections suggests that leadership was effective in identifying and addressing concerns. The published report does not describe management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home handles complaints and incidents in specific terms.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership account for 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and communication with families adds a further 11.5%. Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality: homes where the registered manager has been in post for several years consistently outperform homes with frequent management changes. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is a positive signal, but the 2019 inspection is now over five years old. Asking how long the current manager has been in post, and whether there have been changes in senior staff since 2019, will help you assess whether the quality trajectory has continued.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of blame have lower rates of avoidable harm and higher family satisfaction scores, and that this culture is almost always set by the registered manager rather than by policy documents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post at Lydgate Lodge, and what has been the biggest change you have made since arriving? The answer will tell you both about stability and about whether improvement is ongoing or settled."}

  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 Lydgate Lodge cares for adults over 65, with particular experience supporting people with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the staff work to understand individual needs and maintain familiar routines. The home's person-centred approach helps create stability and comfort during a challenging time. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.