Albert House Nursing Home

What families say

Families mention how their relatives seem content here, with staff who are patient and friendly in their daily interactions. The atmosphere feels settled, with residents able to join in activities when they want to, or simply enjoy the warm, clean surroundings at their own pace.

Based on 6 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness68
• Activities & engagement62
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership52
• Resident happiness65

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-01-16 · Report published 2018-01-16 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Safe at its May 2025 inspection. The available inspection summary does not provide detailed narrative about specific safety findings, staffing ratios, medicines management, or falls recording. The home is a nursing home, meaning registered nurses are required to be on site, which provides a baseline level of clinical oversight. No specific concerns about safety were flagged in the summary, though the Requires Improvement in Well-led can affect how safety issues are monitored and acted upon over time.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Safe is reassuring, but it tells you the minimum threshold has been met, not that every safety question has been answered. Good Practice research from the Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review identifies night staffing as the period where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and agency reliance as a factor that undermines consistency. Because the inspection text does not describe staffing numbers, night cover, or agency use, you cannot assume these are strong. The Requires Improvement in Well-led also matters here: homes where governance is weak are slower to learn from incidents like falls or medication errors. Ask for specifics before drawing conclusions.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (61 studies, 2026) found that night-time staffing ratios and agency staff reliance are two of the strongest predictors of safety outcomes in care homes. Neither is confirmed in the available inspection text for Albert House.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many staff, and in what roles, are on duty overnight for 38 residents? Request to see last week's actual rota, not the template, and count how many shifts were covered by agency workers rather than permanent staff."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Albert House received a Good rating for Effective at its May 2025 inspection. As a nursing home, it is required to employ registered nurses who can manage clinical needs on site, which supports effective healthcare delivery. The available inspection text does not include specific detail about care plan quality, dementia training content, GP access arrangements, or how food quality and dietary needs are managed. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the overall standard, but the detail behind that rating is not available in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a home caring for people with dementia, Effective means more than ticking clinical boxes. The Good Practice evidence base shows that care plans which are regularly reviewed, include life history, and are shaped by family input produce meaningfully better outcomes for people with dementia. A Good rating here suggests these processes are in place, but you cannot verify the depth of your parent's care plan from the inspection summary alone. Food quality is a theme that 20.9% of family reviewers mention in positive terms in our data, and it is a direct signal of whether staff understand individual needs. Visit at a mealtime to see this for yourself.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that care plans function as living documents only when staff are trained to update them in response to changing needs, not on a fixed schedule. Ask how often plans are reviewed and whether families are invited to contribute.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: when was the care plan for their most recently admitted resident last reviewed, and how would your parent's family be involved in shaping and updating the plan? Then ask to see a sample menu and, if possible, visit during a mealtime."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Albert House received a Good rating for Caring at its May 2025 inspection. The inspection summary does not provide narrative observations about specific staff interactions, use of preferred names, response to distress, or the pace of personal care. A Good rating in Caring indicates inspectors were satisfied that residents were treated with dignity and respect, but the absence of detailed narrative means the evidence behind that rating cannot be independently verified from the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data: 57.3% of positive reviews across more than 5,400 UK care homes mention it explicitly. Compassion and dignity come in at 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is a positive signal, but the most reliable test is what you observe when you visit unannounced or at an unscheduled time. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal for people with advanced dementia, and that knowing someone's preferred name, their history, and their routines is what separates task-focused care from person-centred care. Watch how staff speak to residents in corridors and communal areas, not just in formal interactions.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that person-led care, where staff know the individual's history, preferences, and communication style, produces measurably better outcomes in dementia care than compliance-focused approaches.","watch_out":"When you visit, spend 20 minutes in a communal area without announcing yourself as a prospective family member. Watch whether staff make eye contact with residents as they pass, whether anyone is sitting alone for long periods without acknowledgement, and whether the atmosphere feels unhurried."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Albert House received a Good rating for Responsive at its May 2025 inspection. The inspection summary does not describe the activities programme, individual engagement for people who cannot join groups, or how end-of-life preferences are recorded and honoured. The Good rating suggests inspectors were satisfied that the home responds to individual needs, but the published text does not allow verification of the depth or consistency of this. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies some structured provision, though the specifics are not described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Responsive, in family terms, means your parent will have a life here, not just a safe place to sleep. Activities engagement is mentioned positively in 21.4% of family reviews in our data, and resident happiness, which reflects how settled and engaged people appear, is a theme in 27.1% of positive reviews. Good Practice research is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with advanced dementia: one-to-one engagement, and activities connected to a person's life history, produce the best outcomes. The inspection does not confirm whether Albert House offers this. Ask specifically about what happens for a resident who cannot join a group session.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review identified Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks as effective engagement strategies for people with dementia, particularly where group activities are inaccessible. Ask whether the activities coordinator is trained in these approaches.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: what happened last Tuesday for a resident who was unable to join the group session? You are looking for a specific, named activity or interaction, not a general description of policy."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Albert House received a Requires Improvement rating for Well-led at its May 2025 inspection. This is the only domain where the home fell below Good. A registered manager, Kelly Jane Andrews, is named and in post, and a nominated individual, Luke Frederick Venn, is also identified. The published inspection summary does not detail the specific concerns that led to the Requires Improvement rating, so the nature and scale of the governance issues are not clear from the available text. A Requires Improvement in Well-led can affect how safety concerns are identified, how incidents are acted upon, and how consistently staff are supported and supervised.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership account for 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and the Good Practice evidence base is consistent: leadership stability and a culture where staff can raise concerns are among the strongest predictors of care quality over time. A Requires Improvement here does not mean the home is unsafe, but it does mean inspectors found something that needs fixing, and you do not yet know what. Communication with families, flagged in 11.5% of positive reviews, often suffers when governance is weak. The report was published in August 2025, so ask the manager directly what the specific concerns were, what has changed since, and when they expect to be re-inspected.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that homes with stable, visible leadership and cultures of bottom-up empowerment, where staff feel able to speak up, consistently produce better outcomes than those where governance is top-down or opaque.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what were the specific findings that led to the Requires Improvement in Well-led, and what has the home done about each one since May 2025? A good manager will answer this clearly and without defensiveness. Vague or evasive answers are themselves a signal 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 Albert House cares for people over 65 with various needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the structured approach here provides reassurance through routine and familiarity. Staff understand the importance of patience and maintaining dignity throughout each person's journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.