Tendring Care Home

What families say

Residents talk about feeling included from day one, with several mentioning how the friendly atmosphere helped them settle in. The care staff come across as naturally personable — the kind of people who remember what matters to each resident.

Based on 21 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth70
• Compassion & dignity70
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness65

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-01-17 · Report published 2019-01-17 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for safety at its last inspection in March 2021. This covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. No specific inspector observations, staffing ratios, or examples from this domain are available in the published report text. The home is registered for 23 beds and includes dementia as a specialism, which means safe environments and consistent staffing are particularly important. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but the detail behind that conclusion is not publicly available.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in safety is the minimum you should expect, but it tells you little on its own about what happens on a quiet Tuesday night when your parent needs help at 2am. Good Practice research is clear that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in smaller care homes. For a 23-bed home with a dementia specialism, you need to know how many staff are on overnight and whether they are permanent or agency. Agency staff, however competent, do not know your parent's routines, their triggers, or their preferred name. Ask specifically about agency use and night cover rather than accepting a general assurance.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of safety incidents in care homes, because unfamiliar staff cannot apply the individual knowledge that prevents falls, missed medicines, and distress escalation.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template or a policy document. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency, and ask specifically how many carers are on duty overnight for the 23 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for effectiveness at its last inspection. This domain covers staff training, care plan quality, healthcare access (including GP involvement), and how the home supports nutrition and hydration. The home lists dementia as a specialism, so training in dementia-specific care is particularly relevant. No specific detail about training content, care plan review processes, or food quality observations is available in the published inspection text. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied across these areas.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a home that lists dementia as a specialism, the training staff receive matters more than the rating label. Our Good Practice evidence review found that dementia-specific training, particularly around non-verbal communication and understanding behaviour as a form of expression, makes a measurable difference to how settled residents are. A Good rating in Effective tells you the inspection threshold was met, but it does not tell you whether staff know the difference between a person who is in pain and a person who is bored. Food quality is also a signal worth watching: in our family review data, it featured in 20.9% of positive reviews, and what it really measures is whether the home pays attention to the individual rather than the group.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans function best when they are treated as living documents updated by staff who know the resident well, rather than as administrative records completed at admission. Homes where care plans are reviewed regularly and include family input show better outcomes for residents with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask when your parent's care plan would be reviewed after admission, who would be involved in that review, and whether you as a family member would be invited to contribute. If the answer is vague or process-focused rather than person-focused, press for a specific example of how a previous resident's plan was changed based on family feedback."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for caring at its last inspection. This domain is the one inspectors use to record staff kindness, respect, dignity, and how well the home supports residents' independence and individual identity. No direct inspector observations, quotes from residents, or family testimony are available in the published report text for this home. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with what they observed. For a 23-bed home with a dementia specialism, the quality of day-to-day interaction between staff and residents is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important factor in family satisfaction, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews in our dataset of 3,602 families. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are not soft extras; they are the core of what makes a care home work for someone living with dementia. The inspection found this home met the Good standard, but you cannot assess warmth from a published report. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that non-verbal communication, how staff move around a person, whether they make eye contact, whether they knock before entering, matters as much as what is said aloud. These are things you can observe directly on a visit, and they should take priority over what anyone tells you in a meeting.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that person-led care requires staff to know the individual, not just their diagnosis or care plan. Homes where staff use preferred names, know personal histories, and respond to non-verbal cues produce measurably better outcomes for residents with dementia, including lower rates of distress and better sleep.","watch_out":"When you visit, spend time in a communal area before you meet the manager. Watch how staff interact with residents who are not asking for help: do they stop and talk, use the person's preferred name, and seem unhurried? A staff member who walks past a resident without acknowledgement is a more reliable signal than anything said in a formal meeting."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for responsiveness at its last inspection. This domain covers activities and engagement, how the home responds to individual needs and preferences, and end-of-life care planning. No specific detail about the activity programme, individual engagement for residents with advanced dementia, or end-of-life planning is available in the published report text. The home is a small 23-bed service with a dementia specialism, which means tailored, individual engagement rather than group-only activities is an important quality marker.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities matter more than most families expect before a parent moves into a care home. In our family review data, activities featured in 21.4% of positive reviews, and resident happiness and settledness featured in 27.1%. But the Good Practice research is particularly clear here: group activities are not enough for people with moderate or advanced dementia. One-to-one engagement, including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or gardening, supports identity, reduces distress, and improves sleep. A Good rating tells you the inspection threshold was met, but it does not tell you what happens to your parent on a day when they cannot or do not want to join the group. Ask specifically about that.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday-task approaches to engagement, where activities are embedded in the daily routine rather than timetabled separately, produce better outcomes for people with dementia than structured group sessions alone. Homes that offer consistent one-to-one time for residents who disengage from groups show lower rates of distress and better family satisfaction.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what would happen on a typical morning if your parent did not want to join the group activity. Who would spend time with them, what would that look like, and how is it recorded? Ask to see the activities records for the previous two weeks, not just the planned timetable."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for well-led at its last inspection, published in March 2021. A named registered manager (Miss Leah-Ann Bond) and a nominated individual (Mrs Carol Lacey) are recorded. This is a positive structural sign for a small 23-bed home: having identifiable, named leadership in place indicates regulatory stability. No specific detail about management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home responds to complaints and incidents is available in the published report text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Our Good Practice evidence review found that leadership continuity, particularly a manager who is known to staff and residents and who is present rather than office-bound, shapes the culture of a home more than any policy or procedure. For a small home like this one, with 23 beds, the registered manager sets the tone for every shift. The inspection was published in March 2021, which means over four years have passed. You need to find out whether the same manager is still in post and what has changed in that time. Communication with families featured in 11.5% of our positive reviews: ask how the home would contact you if your parent's condition changed, and how quickly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear, and where managers respond visibly to those concerns, show consistently better outcomes across all domains. Bottom-up empowerment, where frontline carers have a voice in how care is delivered, is a stronger predictor of quality than formal governance paperwork alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post, and whether there have been significant changes to the permanent staff team in the past 12 months. High staff turnover in a small home has an outsized effect on continuity of care for residents with dementia, who rely on familiar faces and routines."}

  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 provides care for adults over and under 65, including those living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on While dementia care is offered here, families considering this option should ask detailed questions about assessment procedures and ongoing support, particularly given a reported instance of an early discharge. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.