Ashmead Care Home

What families say

Based on 44 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity60
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement35
• Food quality50
• Healthcare60
• Management & leadership65
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-09-21 · Report published 2022-09-21 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Safe was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection, representing an improvement from the previous rating. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and the physical safety of the environment. The published summary confirms a registered manager is in place, which is a basic but important safety marker. However, the brief published summary does not include specific observations about night staffing numbers, falls management, or how incidents are recorded and acted on. For a 110-bed nursing home with a dementia specialism, these details matter.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Safe is reassuring, but it tells you the home met the threshold at the time of inspection, not what the day-to-day experience looks like now. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in larger homes. With 110 beds, the overnight staffing ratio is a critical question. Our family review data also shows that families rate staff attentiveness highly (cited in 14% of positive reviews), and attentiveness is hardest to sustain when ratios are stretched. The improvement from Requires Improvement is encouraging, but check what specifically changed.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent safe care, because unfamiliar staff cannot read the early signs of deterioration in a person with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff (not agency) are on the dementia unit between 10pm and 7am on a typical weeknight? Request to see last month's agency usage log if possible."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Effective was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, access to healthcare professionals, nutrition, and whether staff have the skills to meet the needs of the people in their care. The home specialises in dementia care for adults over 65, which means dementia-specific training and regular GP access are especially important. The published summary does not include specific detail about training content, care plan review frequency, or food quality and choice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Effective means inspectors were broadly satisfied that staff know what they are doing and that care plans are in place. However, the absence of specific published detail means you cannot yet judge whether care plans are genuinely personalised or reviewed regularly with family input. Food quality is rated as important by 20.9% of families in our review data, and it is a reliable indicator of how much attention is paid to individual needs day to day. The Good Practice evidence base emphasises that care plans should be living documents updated with the person's changing preferences, not paperwork completed on admission and left unchanged.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that regular, documented GP involvement and proactive health monitoring are associated with better outcomes for people with dementia, particularly in detecting pain or infection early when the person cannot communicate their symptoms verbally.","watch_out":"Ask to see the section of your parent's care plan that covers their personal history, food preferences, and daily routines. Ask when it was last reviewed and whether a family member was present for that review."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Caring was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. This domain covers how staff interact with the people they support: whether residents are treated with warmth, whether their privacy and dignity are respected, and whether they are supported to remain as independent as possible. A Good rating here suggests inspectors found broadly positive interactions. The published summary does not include specific quotes from residents or relatives, or specific observations of staff behaviour.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of satisfaction in our family review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating in Caring is therefore the most practically significant finding in this report. What you want to observe on a visit is whether staff use your parent's preferred name without prompting, whether they move at the person's pace rather than their own, and how they respond when someone is upset or distressed. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as what staff say, particularly for people with advanced dementia who may not be able to follow spoken words.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that person-led care, where staff know the individual's life history, preferences, and communication style, produces measurably better outcomes in comfort and settled behaviour for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch how staff greet your parent or another resident in a corridor or communal area. Do they stop, make eye contact, and use the person's name? Or do they pass by without acknowledgement? This single behaviour is one of the most reliable signals of the home's actual culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"Responsive was rated Requires Improvement at the August 2022 inspection, and this is the domain that warrants most attention. This domain covers whether the home responds to each person as an individual: whether activities are meaningful and varied, whether personal routines and preferences are respected, and whether complaints are taken seriously and acted upon. The published summary does not detail the specific findings that led to this rating, which means you need to read the full inspection report to understand exactly what was found lacking.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement here is the most important finding in this report for families considering this home for a parent with dementia. Activities and engagement are cited positively in 21.4% of family reviews, and resident happiness (which depends heavily on meaningful daily occupation) appears in 27.1%. Good Practice research is clear that people with dementia need more than group entertainment: they need individual engagement, preferably linked to their life history, and access to everyday purposeful tasks that give a sense of contribution and continuity. For someone who cannot join group activities, the question is what happens instead. The home may have addressed the specific gaps identified in 2022, but you need to verify this directly.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found strong evidence that Montessori-based approaches and everyday household task involvement (folding, gardening, simple cooking) produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia than passive group entertainment alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe a typical Tuesday for a resident with moderate dementia who prefers to spend time alone rather than in groups. If the answer is vague or defaults to the group programme, that tells you something important. Ask also to see the complaints log and what changes were made in response to the last three complaints received."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Well-led was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. A registered manager (Ms Luminita Cupsa) and a nominated individual (Mr Jandryle Umacob Trondillo) are both confirmed in post, which provides a clear accountability structure. The home's overall improvement from Requires Improvement to Good suggests the leadership team drove meaningful change between inspections. The published summary does not include specific observations about management visibility, staff culture, or governance systems.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained care quality, according to Good Practice research. The fact that this home improved its overall rating is a positive sign that someone in charge recognised what needed to change and acted on it. However, the Responsive domain remaining at Requires Improvement suggests the improvement is not yet complete. Our family review data shows that communication with family (cited positively in 11.5% of reviews) is closely linked to how well-led a home is: managers who are visible and accountable tend to run homes where families feel informed and involved. Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post, as leadership continuity matters more than the rating itself.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that homes where staff feel empowered to raise concerns without fear of reprisal consistently produce better care outcomes, and that this culture is set directly by the registered manager's behaviour and visibility.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post at this home, and what is the one thing you are most focused on improving right now? A manager who has a specific, honest answer to the second question is more reassuring than one who says everything is going well."}

  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 at Ashmead specialises in dementia care, supporting residents through different stages of their journey. They provide full-time residential care for people over 65.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home's dementia care approach includes structured daily activities designed to engage residents. Staff work to maintain familiar routines while providing the specialised support each person needs. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.