Addison Court Care Home

What families say

Some families describe feeling supported through difficult times, with staff maintaining regular contact during medical situations. The nursing team's clinical skills shine through in managing complex transitions. However, other families report concerns about cleanliness standards and activity provision that deserve serious consideration.

Based on 40 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 happiness50

What inspectors found

Inspected 2024-05-09 · Report published 2024-05-09 · Inspected 9 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The February 2025 inspection rated the Safe domain as Good. No narrative detail, specific observations, or evidence about staffing levels, medicines management, falls prevention, infection control, or incident learning was included in the published report text. The home had previously held an Inadequate overall rating, which commonly reflects safety concerns, so the return to Good in this domain is significant but requires context that the published text does not provide.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the foundation every family looks for, and a Good rating here is reassuring after a period of Inadequate. However, our Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in homes that have recently recovered from poor ratings, and the published report gives no detail about night staffing numbers, agency staff usage, or how the home logs and learns from incidents. Staff attentiveness features in 14% of positive family reviews in our data, meaning families do notice and name it. Until more narrative evidence is available, the Good rating is a green light to look closer, not a reason to stop asking questions.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance and inconsistent night staffing are among the most reliable early warning signs of deteriorating safety in care homes that have previously been rated poorly. Ask specifically about these two areas.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, covering both day and night shifts. Count how many names are permanent staff versus agency, and ask what the minimum staffing level is on the dementia unit overnight."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the February 2025 inspection. The published report provides no narrative detail about care plan quality, GP access arrangements, dementia-specific training, medicines administration, or food quality. The home specialises in dementia care, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and care for older adults, all of which require staff with specific training and care plans that are regularly reviewed and updated.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a parent living with dementia, effectiveness means more than ticking boxes. It means staff who understand how dementia changes behaviour, care plans that are genuinely written around your parent as an individual, and regular access to GPs and other health professionals. Food quality is a marker our family review data highlights strongly, appearing in 20.9% of positive reviews, and it is often a reliable signal of how much genuine attention is paid to individuals day to day. The inspection did not record specific detail on any of these areas, so you will need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that care plans function as living documents in the best homes, reviewed with families and updated when a person's condition changes, rather than completed once at admission and filed away. Ask how often care plans are reviewed and whether you will be invited to take part.","watch_out":"Ask to see a blank care plan template and ask when your parent's plan would first be reviewed after admission. Then ask whether family members are routinely invited to those reviews, or whether you would need to request involvement."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the February 2025 inspection. No inspector observations, resident testimony, or relative feedback was included in the published report text. There is therefore no specific evidence available about how staff interact with residents day to day, whether privacy and dignity are consistently respected, or how staff respond to distress in people living with dementia.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, named in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity feature in 55.2%. These are the things families notice most and remember longest. The absence of any narrative detail in this inspection report means there is nothing to point you to as evidence of warmth here. On your visit, watch how staff move through corridors: do they make eye contact, use your parent's preferred name, and sit at the same level when talking? These small signals are more informative than any rating.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal for people living with dementia. Staff who crouch to eye level, speak slowly and calmly, and respond to distress with physical reassurance rather than verbal redirection produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch what happens when a resident appears distressed or confused. Do staff stop what they are doing, make physical contact, and speak calmly? Or do they redirect from a distance without stopping? This is more telling than any formal response about dignity policies."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the February 2025 inspection. The published report contains no detail about the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for people with advanced dementia, how individual preferences are recorded and acted upon, or how end-of-life planning is approached. The home supports people with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, all of whom may have very different needs for meaningful engagement.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A parent who spends most of their day unoccupied or unstimulated will decline faster, both physically and cognitively. Our family review data shows resident happiness features in 27.1% of positive reviews, and activities in 21.4%. The Good Practice evidence base is particularly strong on the importance of one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join group activities, noting that household tasks, reminiscence, and sensory activities tailored to individual history produce the best outcomes. The published report gives no evidence on any of this, so your visit and your questions matter here more than the rating.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday-task approaches to activity, where a person with dementia folds laundry, tends plants, or sorts familiar objects, produce significantly better engagement than scheduled group sessions alone. Ask whether the home uses any of these approaches.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical day looks like for a resident with moderate-to-advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that tells you something important."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the February 2025 inspection. The home is run by Malhotra Care Homes Limited, with Mr Devinder Malhotra named as the Nominated Individual. No narrative detail about management visibility, staff culture, governance systems, incident learning, or communication with families was included in the published report. The return from Inadequate to Good across all domains suggests that meaningful changes were made under current leadership, but the published text does not describe what those changes were.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership quality is one of the strongest predictors of whether a home maintains its standards over time. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies manager tenure and staff stability as the two most reliable indicators of a positive trajectory. The fact that this home recovered from Inadequate is genuinely encouraging, but families need to understand what drove the previous decline and what systems are now in place to catch problems early. Communication with families features in 11.5% of positive reviews in our data, and good homes make contact proactive rather than reactive.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that homes where staff feel safe to raise concerns without fear of reprisal, and where managers are physically present on the floor rather than office-based, sustain quality improvements more reliably than homes that rely primarily on paperwork and audit systems.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what was the reason for the previous Inadequate rating, what specific changes were made, and how will the home know early if standards begin to slip? A manager who can answer this clearly and without defensiveness is a good sign. A vague or deflecting answer is a reason for caution."}

  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 specialises in dementia care, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and general nursing for over-65s. Their nursing team handles complex medical needs including post-hospital recovery and palliative care.. Gaps or open questions remain on As a dementia specialist, Addison Court provides secure accommodation and trained staff. Families considering dementia care should ask specifically about structured activities and cognitive stimulation programmes, as experiences in this area vary considerably. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.