Alexandra Residential and Nursing Home

What families say

Families describe how residents are treated with real respect here, regardless of their diagnosis or needs. People notice how staff take time to engage with residents throughout the day, encouraging them to join in activities when they're able. The atmosphere seems to help residents settle in — some families have even seen their loved ones gain weight and improve physically within months of moving in.

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 & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-12-02 · Report published 2022-12-02 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This is an improvement on the previous inspection outcome. The published summary does not include specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls prevention, infection control practices, or how the home learns from incidents. A 47-bed nursing home with a dementia specialism should be able to give you clear answers on all of these.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is the baseline you want to see, and the improvement from the previous inspection suggests the home has addressed whatever concerns were previously identified. However, Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety is most likely to slip, particularly in homes with dementia residents who may be unsettled or at risk of falls overnight. Our review data shows that family concerns about safety often centre on staff attentiveness rather than formal processes. Because the published findings give no staffing numbers, you will need to ask directly: find out how many carers and how many senior staff are on duty overnight for the 47 beds, and ask whether those are always permanent staff or sometimes agency.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review (2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of poorer safety outcomes in dementia care, because continuity of staffing allows carers to recognise subtle changes in a resident's condition before they become a crisis.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not just the planned rota. Count how many nights used agency or bank staff, and ask what the minimum nurse-to-resident ratio is on a night shift."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. No specific detail is available in the published summary: there are no examples of how care plans are written or reviewed, no mention of GP access arrangements, and no information about dementia-specific training content. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which means inspectors will have expected to see evidence of relevant expertise.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating here tells you inspectors were satisfied, but it does not tell you whether your parent's care plan will feel personal or generic. Good Practice evidence is clear that care plans work best as living documents, updated after every significant health change and shaped by the resident's own life history. In homes caring for people with dementia, the quality of a care plan often determines whether staff know how to de-escalate distress, what your parent likes to eat, and how they prefer to spend a morning. Food quality also sits within this domain: 20.9% of the positive reviews in our data mention meals and choice by name, which tells you families notice. Ask to see a sample care plan structure and ask how recently a real resident's plan was last updated.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training, particularly in non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches, significantly improves the quality of daily interactions and reduces the use of sedating medication in care home settings.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training all care staff must complete before working unsupervised on the dementia unit, and when that training was last refreshed for existing staff. Ask for the name of the training provider or programme."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This domain covers how staff treat the people who live here: whether they are kind, whether privacy and dignity are respected, and whether individuals are supported to be as independent as possible. No inspector observations, resident quotes, or family testimony are included in the published summary. A Good rating means inspectors were satisfied when they visited, but the texture of daily kindness is not described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most mentioned theme in our family review data, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassionate treatment appears in 55.2%. Families notice it immediately and remember it for years. The signals to look for on a visit are specific and observable: does a carer knock before entering a room, do they use your parent's preferred name without being reminded, and do they finish a task before moving on rather than rushing? Good Practice research is clear that for people with dementia, non-verbal communication, including tone of voice, eye contact, and physical proximity, matters as much as the words used. Because the published findings contain no direct observations, your own visit is the primary evidence source here.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that person-centred caring behaviours, including using preferred names, making eye contact at the resident's level, and responding to non-verbal cues, are strongly associated with reduced agitation and better wellbeing in people living with dementia.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch what happens in a corridor interaction between a carer and a resident. Does the carer stop, make eye contact, and use the person's name? Or do they pass with a quick word while continuing to move? That moment tells you more than any policy document."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This covers whether the home tailors its care to each individual, whether activities are meaningful, and whether end-of-life wishes are respected. No specific detail about the activity programme, individual engagement, or end-of-life planning appears in the published summary. For a home with a dementia specialism, the responsiveness of daily life to each resident's history and preferences is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, but the quality that really distinguishes good dementia care is not the group activity timetable. It is what happens for your parent when they cannot or do not want to join a group. Good Practice research supports Montessori-inspired approaches and the use of familiar household tasks as meaningful engagement for people with advanced dementia. If your parent once enjoyed gardening, cooking, or folding laundry, ask specifically whether the home can incorporate those into their daily routine rather than relying solely on scheduled group sessions. Resident happiness, which 27.1% of families mention in positive reviews, tends to correlate with feeling known as an individual rather than simply being safe and clean.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that one-to-one activity tailored to an individual's life history and interests is consistently more effective at reducing distress and improving wellbeing in people with dementia than group activity programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what they would do with your parent on a day when your parent did not want to join the group session. Ask for a specific example from the previous week of a one-to-one activity that was not part of the scheduled programme."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection, improving from the previous Requires Improvement outcome. Miss Allison Thompson is the named Registered Manager, and a Nominated Individual is also recorded. No detail about management visibility, staff culture, quality assurance processes, or how the home handles complaints is included in the published summary. The improvement in leadership rating is the most directly encouraging finding available from this inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality accounts for 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and Good Practice research is consistent on one point: leadership stability predicts the quality trajectory of a care home more reliably than almost any other single factor. The move from Requires Improvement to Good under the current registered manager is a positive sign. What you cannot assess from the published findings is how long the manager has been in post, how visible they are to residents and families on a daily basis, and whether staff feel able to raise concerns. Communication with families, mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews, also sits here. Ask the manager directly how long they have been in their role and what has changed since the previous inspection.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that homes where frontline staff feel psychologically safe to raise concerns without fear of reprisal consistently produce better outcomes for residents, and that this culture is set from the top by the registered manager.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager how long they have been in post, what the two most significant changes were since the previous inspection, and how a family member would raise a concern if they were worried about something. The clarity and specificity of the answer will tell you a great deal about the culture."}

  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 cares for adults over 65 as well as younger adults who need residential or nursing support. They also provide specialist dementia care for residents living with conditions like Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on While the home accepts residents with various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia, families particularly value how staff treat these residents with consistent respect and dignity throughout their care journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.