Anastasia Lodge

What families say

Those who know the home have noticed how staff stay engaged throughout the day, providing consistent hands-on support when residents need it.

Based on 5 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness68
• Activities & engagement55
• Food quality55
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2020-01-03 · Report published 2020-01-03 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Anastasia Lodge was rated Good for safety at the November 2019 inspection. This followed a previous Requires Improvement rating, indicating that earlier concerns had been addressed by the time of this inspection. The published report does not describe specific safety observations, staffing ratios, medicines management practice, or incident learning processes. No concerns about safety were raised. The July 2023 desk-based review found no new information to suggest a deterioration.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a Requires Improvement is meaningful because it shows the home identified what was wrong and fixed it, rather than simply maintaining the status quo. That said, the inspection text gives no detail on night staffing numbers, agency staff use, or how falls are recorded and reviewed. Good Practice research consistently finds that safety is most likely to slip during night shifts and when agency staff who do not know residents well are covering care. For a 29-bed home with dementia as a specialism, the question of how many permanent staff are on overnight matters enormously. You cannot rely on the published report alone here.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review (March 2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of safety incidents in dementia care settings, because continuity of care staff is critical to recognising early signs of deterioration in people who cannot reliably report symptoms themselves.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent carers and how many senior staff are on duty overnight for the 29 beds? Then ask to see last month's rota to confirm whether agency staff covered any of those nights."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Anastasia Lodge was rated Good for effectiveness at the November 2019 inspection. The home lists dementia, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities among its specialisms, indicating it cares for people with a range of complex needs. The inspection text does not describe care plan quality, GP access arrangements, dementia-specific training content, or how food preferences and dietary needs are met. No concerns about effectiveness were recorded.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home is largely about whether staff know your parent well enough to notice when something changes, and whether care plans are genuinely used rather than filed away. Our Good Practice evidence base, drawing on 61 studies, identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated with family input at regular intervals, not just at admission. The inspection gives no detail on any of this. Dementia is listed as a specialism, but that tells you nothing about what training staff have actually completed or how recently. Food quality is one of the 20 most-mentioned themes in our family review data, and it is entirely absent from this report. Ask to visit at lunchtime.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that dementia training content matters as much as training frequency: staff who had received training focused on person-centred communication, not just task completion, showed measurably better interactions with residents in observational studies.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia-specific training every member of the care team has completed in the past 12 months, what the training covered beyond basic awareness, and whether any staff hold a specialist qualification such as a dementia care mapping accreditation."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Anastasia Lodge was rated Good for caring at the November 2019 inspection. The inspection text does not include direct observations of staff interactions, descriptions of how residents are addressed, or accounts of how dignity and privacy are protected in practice. No concerns about caring were raised. The absence of specific evidence is a feature of the brevity of the published report rather than a sign of a problem.","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 name it explicitly. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are not soft extras. They are what families notice first and remember longest. The inspection findings cannot tell you how staff actually speak to your parent, whether they use preferred names, or whether they knock before entering a room. These things cannot be assessed from a published report; they must be observed in person. A Good rating is a starting point, but the caring domain is the one where a visit tells you most.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research consistently finds that non-verbal communication, including pace, eye contact, and physical proximity during personal care, is as important as verbal interaction for people with advanced dementia who may not be able to process or respond to words reliably.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in the corridor: do they stop, make eye contact, and use the resident's name, or do they walk past without acknowledgement? This takes 30 seconds to observe and tells you a great deal."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Anastasia Lodge was rated Good for responsiveness at the November 2019 inspection. The home caters for adults with dementia, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities across a relatively small 29-bed setting. The inspection text does not describe the activity programme, how individual preferences are recorded and acted on, or what provision exists for residents who cannot join group activities. End-of-life care arrangements are not mentioned. No concerns were raised.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is cited in 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities engagement in 21.4%. For people living with dementia, activities are not optional extras: the Good Practice evidence base links meaningful daily engagement to reduced agitation, better sleep, and slower cognitive decline. The concern here is that the inspection gives no detail on what the activity programme actually looks like, or whether the home provides one-to-one engagement for residents who cannot manage group sessions. In a 29-bed home covering dementia, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities, the range of individual needs is significant. Ask to see the activity schedule for last month and ask specifically what happens for someone who spends most of the day in their room.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-based individual activities, such as folding, sorting, or simple cooking tasks, significantly reduce passive time for people with dementia who are unable to engage in group programmes, and are associated with improved wellbeing scores in multiple studies.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual activity records for the past four weeks, not the planned schedule. Check whether any entries show one-to-one engagement for residents who are not mobile or who have advanced dementia, and ask who is responsible for delivering that one-to-one time."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Anastasia Lodge was rated Good for leadership at the November 2019 inspection, having previously been rated Requires Improvement. A named registered manager is recorded. The nominated individual is also named in the registration record. The inspection text does not describe the manager's visibility, how staff are supported, how governance processes work in practice, or how the home responded to the concerns that led to the earlier Requires Improvement rating. No concerns about leadership were raised.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A move from Requires Improvement to Good in the well-led domain is one of the more encouraging signals a home can show, because leadership quality is the strongest predictor of whether improvements are sustained. Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as critical: homes where the registered manager has been in post for more than two years tend to maintain quality more consistently than those with frequent turnover. However, this inspection was conducted in November 2019, which means more than five years have now passed. You do not know whether the same manager is still in post, whether there have been significant staffing changes, or how the home navigated the pressures of the pandemic period. Communication with families scores as a positive theme in 11.5% of our review data; ask directly how the home keeps you informed.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that staff empowerment, specifically whether frontline carers feel able to raise concerns without fear, is a stronger predictor of sustained care quality than formal governance documentation alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post at this home? Then ask: if a carer had a concern about how a resident was being treated, what would they do and what would happen next? The answer will tell you more about the culture than any policy document."}

  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 team supports adults across different life stages, from younger people with learning or physical disabilities to older residents living with dementia. This mix brings valuable perspective to their care approach.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the home's experience with various conditions helps them adapt support as needs change. They work with families to understand each person's history and preferences. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.