Addington Heights Care Home – Care UK

What families say

People notice how content their relatives seem here, especially those who've been residents for a while. The atmosphere works well for people with dementia, with families reporting that their loved ones appear genuinely happy and well cared for.

Based on 16 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership60
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-04-19 · Report published 2018-04-19 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated the Safe domain as Good. No specific findings about staffing numbers, medicines management, falls prevention, infection control, or incident learning are included in the available published text. The home had previously been rated Requires Improvement, suggesting earlier safety concerns had been addressed by the time of this inspection. Beyond the rating itself, the published report does not record what inspectors observed or measured.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is a meaningful baseline, but without the detail behind it, it is hard to know what specifically reassured inspectors. Our Good Practice evidence base, drawn from 61 studies, consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in care homes. The published findings record nothing about overnight staffing ratios or agency use at Addington Heights. Given the home's broad specialism mix, including dementia and mental health conditions, these questions matter more, not less. Because this home is now closed, these questions are historical, but if you are comparing it against an active home, the absence of specific safety evidence is a prompt to ask much more detailed questions of any home you are currently considering.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance and low night staffing ratios are among the strongest predictors of safety failures in care homes, yet these are rarely captured in summary inspection ratings alone.","watch_out":"If you are using this report to benchmark an active home, ask the manager to show you the actual signed staffing rota from the past two weeks, and count how many shifts were covered by agency staff, particularly overnight."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated the Effective domain as Good. No specific findings about care plan quality, GP access, dementia training content, food quality, or nutritional monitoring are included in the available published text. The home declared dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to dementia-specific practice, but the inspection report does not describe what that looked like in practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home is about whether staff actually know what they are doing for your parent's specific conditions, not just whether a training record exists. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated as a person's needs change, and regular GP access as a basic marker of good healthcare. Food quality, which 20.9% of positive family reviews mention specifically, is another signal of genuine care. None of these are detailed in the published findings for Addington Heights. If your parent has dementia, ask any home you visit what their dementia training covers and when staff last completed it.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training which goes beyond awareness to include communication techniques and behavioural understanding produces measurable improvements in resident wellbeing, but generic training completion alone does not.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to describe what dementia training staff receive, how long it lasts, and whether it covers non-verbal communication and responding to distress. A confident, specific answer is a good sign; a vague one is worth probing further."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated the Caring domain as Good. No direct observations of staff interactions, no resident or relative quotes, and no specific examples of dignity or compassion in practice are included in the available published text. The Good rating is confirmed but unaccompanied by the kind of detail that would allow a family to picture daily life for their parent.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of positive family reviews in our data, mentioned in 57.3% of reviews, and compassion and dignity together account for 55.2%. These are the things families notice most, and they are also the hardest to assess from a rating alone. What the Good Practice evidence base tells us is that person-led care depends on staff genuinely knowing the individual, their name preferences, their history, their triggers, and their routines. The published findings here record none of that for Addington Heights. On any visit to an active home, pay close attention to how staff speak to residents in corridors and communal areas, not just in a formal meeting with you.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including tone of voice, physical proximity, and unhurried movement, is as important as verbal interaction for people living with dementia, particularly those who can no longer reliably express distress in words.","watch_out":"Sit in a communal area for 20 minutes during your visit and watch whether staff make eye contact, use names, and move without hurry. These small behaviours are more reliable indicators of a caring culture than anything written in a brochure."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated the Responsive domain as Good. No specific detail about activity programmes, individual engagement, end-of-life care planning, or how the home responded to complaints is included in the available published text. The home's declared specialisms suggest it was intended to be responsive to a wide range of complex needs, but the inspection record does not describe how that responsiveness worked in practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Responsiveness is about whether your parent will have a life here, not just a safe place to sleep. Our review data shows that activities and engagement account for 21.4% of what families praise, and resident happiness accounts for 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that meaningful activity cannot be delivered only through group programmes: people with advanced dementia in particular need one-to-one engagement, and everyday household tasks can provide continuity and purpose. The published findings for Addington Heights do not describe any of this. Because the home is now closed, this is historical, but these are exactly the questions to ask of any home you are currently considering.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and individualised activity approaches, including everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, and simple cooking, produce significantly better engagement outcomes for people with moderate to advanced dementia than group activity programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last week's actual activity records, not a planned schedule. Look for evidence of one-to-one sessions and note whether residents with advanced dementia or those who stay in their rooms are included."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated the Well-led domain as Good. A nominated individual, Ms Rachel Louise Harvey, was recorded as responsible for the service. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating to Good suggests that identified leadership or governance failures were addressed. No specific detail about management visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or complaint handling is included in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, according to our Good Practice evidence base. A manager who is known by name to residents and staff, visible on the floor, and able to explain decisions clearly is a reliable signal of a well-run home. The published findings here confirm a Good rating and name a nominated individual, but they do not tell you whether the manager was present and approachable during the inspection, or what the staff culture felt like. Our review data shows that communication with families, mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews, is closely linked to how well-led a home is. Families who feel informed trust the home more. If you are visiting an active home, ask directly how the manager communicates with relatives when something changes.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that leadership which empowers staff to raise concerns without fear, sometimes described as bottom-up empowerment, is a consistent predictor of better care quality and lower rates of avoidable harm.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post and whether there have been any significant staffing changes in the past six months. A manager who answers confidently and specifically, and who knows individual residents by name, is a stronger sign of stable leadership than any written policy."}

  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 supports adults of all ages with complex needs including dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on The team shows particular strength in dementia care, with families observing how well their relatives with dementia settle and thrive here over time. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.