St Andrews Care Home

What families say

Visitors often comment on how approachable and caring the staff are here. The home has a good selection of activities that residents can join or skip as they prefer, which helps create a more relaxed atmosphere than you might find elsewhere.

Based on 11 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity58
• Cleanliness58
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare58
• Management & leadership42
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2021-05-14 · Report published 2021-05-14 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This means inspectors did not find evidence of significant safety failures at the time of the visit. However, the published report provides no specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls prevention, or infection control practices. The home accommodates up to 70 residents, including people living with dementia, which makes consistent staffing and night cover particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, but the absence of specific published detail means you cannot rely on the rating alone to answer the questions that matter most for your parent. Good Practice research from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in care homes, particularly in larger homes like this one with 70 beds. Agency staff use is a related concern: when staff change frequently, they do not know your parent's routines, responses, or triggers, which increases risk for people with dementia. Ask directly about both before you decide.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies that night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance are the two most common factors in safety incidents in care homes, particularly for people with dementia who may be more vulnerable and less able to summon help.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, covering both day and night shifts. Count how many names are permanent employees and how many are agency. Then ask specifically how many staff are on the dementia unit after 10pm."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The published report does not provide specific detail on any of these areas. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which should mean staff receive specific training in dementia care, but the inspection text does not confirm what that training involves or how recently it was completed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home means that staff know what they are doing and that your parent's individual needs are properly understood and acted on. In our review data, families rate healthcare access (20.2% weighting) and food quality (20.9% weighting) as two of the eight things they care most about. Neither is described in specific terms in this inspection. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated regularly and co-produced with families, not written once and filed away. Ask to see how care plans are structured and how often they are reviewed with family involvement.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base from 61 studies identifies that dementia-specific training content, particularly non-verbal communication and understanding behaviour as a form of expression, is a stronger predictor of good care outcomes than training volume alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia-specific training every member of staff completes, not just whether training exists. Then ask when care plans are reviewed and whether families are routinely invited to contribute."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and how well staff know and respond to individual residents. The published report does not include specific observations, quotes, or examples to illustrate what caring practice looks like at St Andrews. There are no resident or relative quotes recorded in the available text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive Google reviews across more than 5,400 UK care homes. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating in Caring is encouraging, but without specific examples from the inspection it is impossible to tell you what that looks like in practice for your parent. The observable signals to look for on a visit are: staff using your parent's preferred name without being prompted, unhurried conversations in corridors, and whether staff make eye contact and address your parent directly rather than speaking over them to you.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research identifies that non-verbal communication, such as pace, eye contact, and physical presence, is as important as verbal interaction for people with advanced dementia who may have limited language. Staff who slow down and position themselves at eye level produce measurably better responses.","watch_out":"On your visit, observe what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in a corridor or communal area. Do they acknowledge the person by name, make eye contact, and pause? Or do they walk past without interaction? This is one of the most reliable observable indicators of caring culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain covers activities, individualised care, and how well the home responds to changing needs including end-of-life care. The published report provides no specific detail about what activities are offered, how they are tailored to individuals, or how the home supports residents who cannot participate in group activities. Given the home's dementia specialism, this is an area that deserves direct scrutiny on a visit.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness, which depends heavily on meaningful engagement, accounts for 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities account for a further 21.4%. For people living with dementia, the Good Practice evidence base consistently highlights that one-to-one engagement, not just group activities, is essential for wellbeing. A group sing-along or exercise class may work well for some residents, but your parent may need individual support to feel engaged and settled. The inspection gives no information about whether the home provides this. Ask to see last week's activity records, not just the planned programme.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research identifies that Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks, such as folding laundry, arranging flowers, or simple cooking, produce stronger engagement and lower levels of distress for people with dementia than structured group activities alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe specifically what happens for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions. How many one-to-one sessions did residents receive last week, and who delivered them?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2022 inspection. This is the only domain where inspectors identified concerns that had not been resolved. The published report does not detail what those concerns were. The registration data lists multiple registered manager names against the home, which raises questions about leadership continuity. The home is operated by Colleycare Limited. It is not possible from the available text to identify whether the Requires Improvement findings have been addressed since the inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, according to the Good Practice evidence base. A Requires Improvement in Well-led means that inspectors found governance, accountability, or management issues that were not at a sufficient standard. This matters for your parent because weak leadership affects everything else: whether staff feel supported, whether concerns are acted on, and whether the home continues to improve or slides back. The previous Inadequate rating makes this history more significant. Communication with families (mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews) also flows directly from leadership culture. Ask the current manager directly what the Requires Improvement finding related to and what has changed since.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research identifies that leadership stability and a culture where staff feel able to speak up without fear are the two strongest structural predictors of sustained care quality. Homes where managers are frequently absent or where staff feel unable to raise concerns show higher rates of dignity failures.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post, whether the issues that led to the Requires Improvement rating have been formally reassessed by inspectors, and what specific changes were made to governance and oversight since the January 2022 inspection. If they cannot answer clearly, that itself is 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 home cares for adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia. They also offer respite stays alongside their full-time residential placements.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the home follows person-centred care approaches. The friendly staff and choice of activities can help residents feel more settled. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.