Ashby Court Care Home – Bupa
At a Glance
The information you need to decide whether this home warrants a closer look.
Nursing homes
Staff warmth score
of reviewers answered yes
Good to know
- Registered beds60
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Dementia
- Last inspected2019-11-09
- Activities programmeThe dining experience stands out in family accounts, with meals that mark occasions properly — one family recalled a memorable Boxing Day lunch. The gardens provide proper outdoor space, and practical touches like the on-site hairdresser mean residents don't lose those small dignities that matter.
- Visit Website
The Evidence
What the review data, the inspection reports, and the dementia-care evidence base tell us about this home.
What families say
Families describe finding their relatives engaged in activities that match what they can manage — whether that's joining entertainers who visit, pottering in the garden, or simply watching the world go by from comfortable seating areas. The sense is of a place where residents remain part of things rather than apart from them.
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 & engagement85
- Food quality60
- Healthcare70
- Management & leadership72
- Resident happiness70
What inspectors found
Inspected 2019-11-09 · Report published 2019-11-09 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the November 2019 inspection. This means inspectors were satisfied that risks were being managed, medicines handled correctly, and staffing sufficient for the number of people living here. The home has 60 beds and specialises in dementia care and nursing. No specific observations, ratios, or examples are recorded in the available published text for this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating gives a reasonable baseline, but the absence of specific detail in the published findings means you cannot verify the detail from the report alone. For a 60-bed dementia nursing home, night staffing is the area where safety most commonly slips: the Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research, Leeds Beckett, 2026) identifies night staffing as the single highest-risk period for people with dementia. Our review data shows that families most often raise safety concerns when they feel staff are stretched thin, particularly in the evening and overnight. The inspection is now over five years old, so this is an area to explore directly rather than assume from the rating alone.","evidence_base":"The 2026 IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios are a consistent predictor of safety outcomes in dementia nursing homes, and that agency reliance undermines the consistency of care that people with dementia particularly need.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the planned template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff covered night shifts on the dementia unit, and ask what the minimum staffing level is overnight for 60 residents."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the November 2019 inspection. This domain covers care planning, dementia training, healthcare access, nutritional support, and how well staff understand each resident as an individual. Dementia is a listed specialism, which means inspectors will have checked for dementia-specific training and care approaches. No specific training content, care plan examples, or healthcare access detail is recorded in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating suggests inspectors found that staff knew what they were doing and that care plans reflected individual needs, but the lack of published detail makes it hard to verify the depth of that. Food quality is one of the most reliable everyday signals of how much a home understands care: our review data links food satisfaction to broader positive ratings in 20.9% of cases. Dementia-specific training matters enormously for your parent's day-to-day experience. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that care plans should function as living documents, updated with families after any significant change, not filed and forgotten. Ask how often your parent's care plan would be reviewed and whether you would be invited to contribute.","evidence_base":"The 2026 rapid evidence review found that care plans function best as dynamic tools updated collaboratively with families, and that homes where staff receive structured dementia training show measurably better outcomes in managing distress and supporting independence.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample anonymised care plan and ask how often plans are formally reviewed. Then ask whether families are routinely invited to those reviews or whether updates happen without family input."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the November 2019 inspection. This domain covers how staff treat people: whether they are kind, whether dignity and privacy are respected, and whether residents feel in control of their own lives. No direct quotes from residents or relatives, and no specific inspector observations about staff interactions, are recorded in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity feature in 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is a positive signal, but without specific inspector observations it is hard to know whether what they saw was warm and individualised or simply adequate. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken words for people with advanced dementia: staff who make eye contact, move without hurry, and use a person's preferred name are doing something genuinely meaningful. Observe this yourself on a visit rather than relying on the rating alone.","evidence_base":"The 2026 IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that non-verbal communication, including pace, eye contact, and physical proximity, is as important as verbal communication for people with dementia, and that staff who demonstrate these behaviours consistently produce measurably lower levels of distress.","watch_out":"On your visit, sit in a communal area for at least 20 minutes without announcing yourself as a prospective family member. Watch whether staff passing through speak to residents by name, make eye contact, and move without hurry, or whether they focus on tasks and move past people without acknowledgement."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Outstanding at the November 2019 inspection. This is the highest possible rating and is awarded only when inspectors find consistent, individualised, person-centred responses to what residents need and want. This domain covers activities, engagement, individuality, and end-of-life planning. The home specialises in dementia care, which makes an Outstanding Responsive rating particularly meaningful. The available published text does not reproduce the specific evidence inspectors used to award this rating.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"An Outstanding Responsive rating is genuinely unusual: fewer than one in ten homes achieves it. For a home specialising in dementia, it suggests inspectors found real evidence of individualised engagement, not just a standard group activities programme. Our review data shows that activities and engagement feature in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence base identifies tailored individual activities, including everyday household tasks and Montessori-based approaches, as significantly more effective than group-only programmes for people with dementia. The gap in the available text is that we cannot verify what specific practices earned this rating, or whether those practices are still in place five years later. Ask to see the activities programme and ask specifically what would happen for your parent on a day when they did not feel like joining a group.","evidence_base":"The 2026 rapid evidence review found that individualised, one-to-one activities, including familiar household tasks and sensory engagement, produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia than group programmes alone, and that homes sustaining Outstanding Responsive ratings typically have a dedicated activity coordinator with a named approach.","watch_out":"Ask to meet the activities coordinator and ask them to describe, specifically, what they would do for your parent on a day when your parent was withdrawn or distressed and unable to join a group activity. A concrete, personalised answer is a good sign. A general answer about the programme is not."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the November 2019 inspection. The registered manager is named as Ms Teresa Millar, and the nominated individual is Mr Donald Day. The home is part of the Bupa Care Homes group. Well-led covers management visibility, staff culture, governance, how the home responds to concerns, and whether staff feel able to speak up. No specific observations about management style, staff feedback, or governance processes are recorded in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is a strong predictor of care quality over time: the Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership continuity shapes the entire culture of a home. One important question here is whether Ms Teresa Millar is still the registered manager, given that the inspection took place in November 2019, over five years ago. Our review data shows that communication with families features in 11.5% of positive reviews, and that families most commonly raise concerns when they feel out of the loop about changes in their parent's condition or the home's staffing. A Good Well-led rating tells you the basics were in place in 2019, but leadership and culture can shift significantly with management changes.","evidence_base":"The 2026 IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained care quality in care homes, and that homes with high management turnover show measurable deterioration in staff confidence and care consistency within 12 months.","watch_out":"Before or during your visit, ask directly whether Ms Teresa Millar is still the registered manager and how long she has been in post. If there has been a management change since 2019, ask who is now registered and what their background is in dementia nursing care."}
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 people over 65, with particular experience in dementia care. Regular visits from the optician and chiropodist happen on-site.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the approach focuses on maintaining connections to normal life through adapted activities and familiar routines. The environment itself helps, with clear spaces and gardens that encourage safe wandering. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.
The DCC Verdict
Our editorial view, built from the three lenses: what families tell us, what inspectors record, and how the home sits against good dementia-care practice.
DCC Family Score
The Outstanding rating for Responsive care lifts the overall picture, suggesting this home works hard to keep your parent engaged and as independent as possible. All other domains were rated Good, which is a solid baseline, though the published inspection text provides limited specific detail to push individual scores higher.
Homes in East Midlands typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
Families describe finding their relatives engaged in activities that match what they can manage — whether that's joining entertainers who visit, pottering in the garden, or simply watching the world go by from comfortable seating areas. The sense is of a place where residents remain part of things rather than apart from them.
What inspectors have recorded
Staff seem to understand that good care means different things at different times. They've been there at the hardest moments — sitting with residents at the end when families couldn't visit, making sure no one was alone. Day to day, families find the management team easy to approach when things need sorting.
How it sits against good practice
Sometimes the measure of a care home is found in the quiet moments — staff tracking down lost cardigans, or making sure a visiting grandchild gets their favourite crackers at lunch.
Worth a visit
Ashby Court Care Home in Ashby de la Zouch holds an overall Good rating from its last full inspection, carried out in November 2019, with an Outstanding rating for Responsive care. That Outstanding rating is significant: inspectors only award it when they find consistent, individualised engagement that goes beyond standard expectations. All other domains, covering safety, training and care planning, kindness and dignity, and leadership, were rated Good. The home is run by Bupa Care Homes and has a named registered manager, Ms Teresa Millar. The main limitation here is that the most recent full inspection took place in November 2019. A monitoring review in July 2023 found no evidence requiring a reassessment, which is reassuring, but it is not the same as a fresh inspection. Conditions, staffing, and management can change significantly over four years. Before visiting, call the home and ask specifically about current night staffing ratios, agency staff usage, and how care plans are reviewed and shared with families. On the visit itself, watch how staff interact with residents in communal areas and corridors: unhurried, name-using interactions are the clearest signal that the culture described in 2019 has been maintained.
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In Their Own Words
How Ashby Court Care Home – Bupa describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Where daily life continues with purpose and gentle support
Ashby Court Care Home – Your Trusted nursing home
When families visit Ashby Court Care Home in Ashby De La Zouch, they often mention how different it feels from what they expected. The coffee areas buzz with conversation, residents head out to local shops, and the gardens draw people outside on good days. It's this rhythm of ordinary life that seems to matter most to the people who live here.
Who they care for
The home cares for people over 65, with particular experience in dementia care. Regular visits from the optician and chiropodist happen on-site.
For residents with dementia, the approach focuses on maintaining connections to normal life through adapted activities and familiar routines. The environment itself helps, with clear spaces and gardens that encourage safe wandering.
Management & ethos
Staff seem to understand that good care means different things at different times. They've been there at the hardest moments — sitting with residents at the end when families couldn't visit, making sure no one was alone. Day to day, families find the management team easy to approach when things need sorting.
The home & environment
The dining experience stands out in family accounts, with meals that mark occasions properly — one family recalled a memorable Boxing Day lunch. The gardens provide proper outdoor space, and practical touches like the on-site hairdresser mean residents don't lose those small dignities that matter.
“Sometimes the measure of a care home is found in the quiet moments — staff tracking down lost cardigans, or making sure a visiting grandchild gets their favourite crackers at lunch.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
