Waters Edge Care Home

What families say

Families visiting have noticed how responsive the care staff are when residents need help. The team conducts themselves professionally and courteously, making visitors feel welcome while keeping their focus on the residents' wellbeing.

Based on 7 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement62
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-12-24 · Report published 2022-12-24 · Inspected 6 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the February 2024 inspection. This confirms that inspectors were satisfied with safety standards at the time of their visit. The home had previously received a Requires Improvement rating overall, and the fact that Safe is now rated Good suggests that earlier safety-related concerns were resolved. The published report text does not include specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls recording, or infection control practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but our Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in residential care homes. The published findings do not tell you what the night staffing numbers are for 63 residents. With a home that has moved up from Requires Improvement, it is worth asking directly what specific safety improvements were made and whether they are now embedded in day-to-day practice, not just in place for the inspection.","evidence_base":"Research across 61 studies found that agency staff reliance and low night staffing ratios are two of the strongest predictors of safety incidents in care homes. A Good rating does not confirm what those ratios are; families need to ask directly.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count the number of permanent carers on nights versus agency cover, and ask what the minimum number of staff on duty overnight is for the full 63-bed home."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the February 2024 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The home supports people living with dementia and those with physical disabilities and mental health conditions, which requires staff to have specific skills and regularly updated care plans. The published report text does not include specific examples of care plan quality, GP access arrangements, or dementia training content.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For your mum or dad living with dementia, the Effective domain matters because it covers whether staff actually know them as an individual, not just as a diagnosis. Our family review data shows that dementia-specific care features in 12.7% of positive reviews, often described as staff knowing the person's history and responding to their specific needs. A Good rating here is positive, but ask the home to show you an anonymised care plan so you can judge for yourself whether it reads like a real person or a generic form.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that care plans functioning as living documents, updated after every significant change and co-produced with families, are a reliable marker of effective dementia care. Homes where families are invited to contribute to care plan reviews tend to have better outcomes for residents.","watch_out":"Ask how often care plans are reviewed and whether you would be invited to contribute. Then ask what specific dementia training staff have completed in the past 12 months and whether it goes beyond mandatory online modules."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the February 2024 inspection. This covers how staff treat the people in their care, including warmth, dignity, privacy, and respect for independence. The published report text does not include inspector observations of staff interactions, direct quotes from residents or relatives about how they feel treated, or specific examples of dignity practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. These are the things families notice most and remember longest. A Good rating in Caring is encouraging, but the only way to assess warmth is to visit unannounced or at an unusual time, watch how staff move through communal areas, and notice whether your parent would be addressed by their preferred name without being prompted.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people living with dementia. Staff who crouch to eye level, make unhurried physical contact, and use a calm tone produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than those who complete tasks efficiently but without that attentiveness.","watch_out":"On your visit, stand quietly in a communal area for ten minutes and watch how staff interact with residents who are not calling for attention. Are interactions unhurried? Do staff sit down, make eye contact, and use names? That is the real test of a Caring rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the February 2024 inspection. This covers whether the home tailors its care to individual needs, offers meaningful activities, and responds well to complaints. The home supports people with a range of conditions including dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, which requires a genuinely individualised approach rather than a one-size programme. The published report text does not describe the activities programme, how individual preferences are recorded, or how complaints are handled.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness, which is closely linked to meaningful occupation, accounts for 27.1%. For someone living with dementia, group activities are not always accessible or appropriate. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that one-to-one engagement and everyday household-style tasks, helping to fold laundry, tending plants, handling familiar objects, produce better wellbeing outcomes than organised group sessions alone. Ask specifically what the home does for residents who cannot join group activities.","evidence_base":"Research including Montessori-based dementia care programmes found that matching activity to the individual's remaining abilities, rather than offering a standard programme, significantly reduces distress and increases purposeful engagement in people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities schedule for the past two weeks (the actual record, not the printed plan) and ask what happened yesterday for a resident who cannot join group sessions. If the answer is vague, that is worth exploring further."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the February 2024 inspection. The home is run by Alpha Health Care Limited, with Mrs Sharon Louise Di Maio listed as the Nominated Individual. A move from Requires Improvement to Good across all domains requires active leadership, which suggests that management identified and addressed earlier weaknesses. The published report text does not describe the manager's visibility, staff culture, or specific governance arrangements.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership account for 23.4% of positive family reviews. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory: homes with a consistent manager who is known to staff and residents tend to maintain and improve their ratings, while homes where managers change frequently tend to drift. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is a positive signal, but ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and what specifically changed between the two inspection periods.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of blame, and where managers are visibly present rather than office-based, consistently perform better on safety and caring indicators than homes where leadership is more distant.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and whether they are on site most weekdays. Then ask what the three most significant changes made since the last inspection were. A confident, specific answer is a good sign. A vague or defensive one is worth noting."}

  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 specialist support for people living with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities. They care for adults over 65, with staff trained to understand the particular needs of each condition.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the care team focuses on being present and responsive. Staff understand that feeling heard and helped quickly can make all the difference to someone's sense of security and dignity. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.