Amherst House Care Home – Care UK

What families say

Visitors describe finding residents comfortable and content in their daily routines. The home runs a varied programme of activities — from live entertainment to cinema screenings — that helps keep days engaging. There's a beauty salon on site too, and regular outings give residents chances to enjoy life beyond the home's walls.

Based on 37 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 quality62
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership68
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-06-07 · Report published 2023-06-07 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Amherst House was rated Good for safety at its March 2023 inspection. The published summary does not include specific detail about staffing numbers, night cover, falls management, or medication handling. A Good rating in this domain indicates that inspectors did not find significant safety failures, but the absence of specific findings in the published summary means families cannot verify the detail independently. The home cares for people with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, all of which carry specific safety considerations.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a reasonable baseline, but it tells you less than you might hope. Good Practice research highlights that night staffing is the point where safety most often slips in care homes, and the published report gives no figures for overnight cover across 60 beds. Agency staff reliance is another risk factor, particularly for people with dementia who rely on familiar faces to feel settled and safe. The inspection found no evidence of serious safety failures, but you should treat the lack of published detail as a reason to ask direct questions rather than a reason for reassurance.","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 incidents in dementia care settings. Consistent, named staff matter more than total headcount.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the template. Count how many permanent staff were on each night shift versus agency cover, and ask what the minimum number of staff on duty overnight is for 60 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Amherst House was rated Good for effectiveness at its March 2023 inspection. This domain covers care planning, training, healthcare access, and nutrition. The published summary does not include specific observations about care plan quality, GP access arrangements, dementia training content, or food provision. A Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with these areas at the time of the visit, but no direct examples or resident outcomes are recorded in the available text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a home that lists dementia as a specialism, the quality of training and care planning matters enormously to your parent's day-to-day life. Good Practice evidence is clear that care plans need to be treated as living documents, reviewed regularly and updated with family input, not filed away after admission. Food quality is also a significant marker: 20.9% of positive family reviews in our data mention food by name, and for people with dementia, familiar meals and patient support at mealtimes can make a real difference to nutrition and comfort. The inspection gives you no specific detail here, so these are areas to probe directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base shows that dementia-specific training, when it goes beyond basic awareness to include communication techniques and behavioural understanding, is directly linked to lower rates of avoidable medication use and better resident wellbeing.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if necessary) and check whether it includes your parent's life history, preferred name, food likes and dislikes, and how they like to be supported with personal care. Ask when it was last reviewed and whether families are formally invited to contribute."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Amherst House was rated Good for Caring at its March 2023 inspection. This is the domain that most directly reflects whether staff are kind, whether your parent would be treated with dignity, and whether they would feel respected rather than processed. The published summary contains no specific observations, quotes from residents or relatives, or examples of staff behaviour in this area. A Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but the lack of detail means this cannot be independently verified from the published report alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data: 57.3% of positive reviews mention it by name, and compassion and dignity account for 55.2%. These are not abstract qualities. They show up in whether staff knock before entering a room, whether they use your parent's preferred name, and whether they sit at eye level during a conversation rather than talking down. The inspection rating is encouraging, but a Good for Caring with no supporting detail is a prompt to observe these things yourself, not a guarantee. Watch how staff and residents interact in corridors and communal spaces during your visit.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research consistently shows that non-verbal communication, pace, and use of a person's preferred name are as important as spoken words for people with dementia. Homes where staff are observed to rush, use generic terms, or avoid eye contact score significantly lower on resident wellbeing measures even when formal ratings are positive.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how staff greet your parent's name if you mention it in conversation, and whether any staff member you meet in a corridor makes eye contact, smiles, or acknowledges residents passing by. These small moments are more reliable than anything written in a report."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Amherst House was rated Good for Responsiveness at its March 2023 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, and how well the home responds to each person's preferences and changing needs. The published summary does not include specific examples of activity programmes, one-to-one engagement, or how the home tailors its approach for people with advanced dementia. The home's specialisms include dementia and physical disabilities, which makes the absence of specific activity detail a notable gap for families researching this home.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness for 27.1%. For people with dementia especially, meaningful occupation, not just organised entertainment, is closely linked to reduced agitation and better quality of life. Good Practice evidence highlights that one-to-one activity, including simple household tasks or familiar routines, matters most for people who cannot participate in group sessions. A Good rating in Responsive is reassuring at a high level, but you need to ask specifically what your parent would actually do on a Tuesday afternoon if they did not want to join the group activity.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett University evidence review found that individually tailored activities, including Montessori-based approaches and familiar everyday tasks, produced measurable improvements in wellbeing for people with dementia, while group-only activity programmes showed limited impact for those with moderate to advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe a typical week for a resident who prefers quieter, individual time rather than group sessions. Ask how one-to-one engagement is recorded and whether you could see an example of how it is planned around a resident's life history."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Amherst House was rated Good for Well-led at its March 2023 inspection. A registered manager, Mrs Cristina Diana Cristea, is named and in post, and a nominated individual, Ms Rachel Louise Harvey, is identified. The published summary does not include specific observations about management visibility, staff culture, or how the home handles complaints and incidents. The decline from a previous Outstanding rating to Good is the most significant piece of context in this domain and the published summary offers no explanation for that change.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality and communication with families accounts for 23.4% of family satisfaction in our review data, and 11.5% of positive reviews specifically mention how the home keeps families informed. Good Practice research is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory: homes with consistent, visible managers tend to maintain their ratings, while homes in transition are more vulnerable to gradual decline. The move from Outstanding to Good is not necessarily cause for alarm, but it is cause for a direct conversation with the manager about what changed and what has been done in response.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that bottom-up empowerment, meaning staff who feel able to raise concerns without fear, is a more reliable indicator of sustained quality than formal governance documents. Ask whether staff feel comfortable speaking up.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what changed between the Outstanding inspection and this one, and what specific actions have been taken since? Also ask how long the current manager has been in post and whether there have been significant changes to the senior team in the past 18 months."}

  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 Amherst House provides care for adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia, physical disabilities, or sensory impairments.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home supports residents with dementia as part of its broader care provision. Staff work with the varied needs that come with dementia, adapting their approach to help each resident feel secure and valued. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.