Ashton Grange Care Home

What families say

What strikes families visiting here is the genuine patience and kindness they witness in everyday interactions. Staff take time to engage residents in activities, encouraging participation without pressure. The home itself feels clean and welcoming, with attention paid to maintaining a pleasant environment.

Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-06-01 · Report published 2018-06-01 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated Ashton Grange Good for safety. The home is registered to care for people with a range of complex needs including dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities. No specific safety concerns were identified in the published findings. Beyond the domain rating itself, the inspection text does not provide detail on staffing ratios, falls management, medicines handling, or infection control practices.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating means inspectors did not find significant gaps in how the home keeps residents safe, which is reassuring as a starting point. However, Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips in care homes of this size, and a 40-bed home caring for people with dementia and physical disabilities needs enough staff overnight to respond quickly to falls or distress. The published findings do not tell us what the night staffing numbers actually are, so you will need to ask this directly. Agency staff use is also worth checking: homes that rely heavily on agency workers struggle to maintain the consistency that people with dementia need. Our family review data shows that 14% of positive reviews specifically mention staff attentiveness, which is only possible when there are enough permanent, familiar staff present.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) found that night staffing levels are the point at which safety most commonly deteriorates in residential care, and that consistent, familiar staff are a protective factor particularly for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the template. Count permanent staff names against agency names, and ask how many carers are on duty between 10pm and 6am across all 40 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated Ashton Grange Good for effectiveness. This domain covers how well staff know and respond to residents' individual needs, training quality, healthcare access, nutrition, and how care plans are used in practice. The published report does not provide specific observations on any of these areas. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but the level of detail available here is limited.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness is where the detail of daily care lives: whether your parent's GP is contacted promptly when their health changes, whether staff understand the difference between a urinary tract infection and worsening dementia, and whether care plans are genuinely used or sit in a folder unread. Food quality is a particularly telling marker, because 20.9% of positive reviews in our family data mention it by name, and the effort a home puts into meals reflects how much it attends to individual preferences more broadly. Because the published findings give no specific evidence here, you should ask to speak with a member of the care team, not just the manager, and ask them to describe your parent's care plan to you from memory. If they can, that tells you a great deal.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that care plans function as living documents only when staff actively refer to them during handovers and care delivery. Homes where care plans are reviewed regularly with family involvement show better outcomes for people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask how often care plans are formally reviewed, and ask whether families are invited to those reviews. Then ask a frontline care worker, not the manager, what they know about how a resident prefers to start their day. The gap between the answer and the care plan tells you whether the document is actually used."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated Ashton Grange Good for caring. This domain reflects whether staff treat residents with warmth, respect their dignity, and support their independence. A Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with what they observed. No specific inspector observations, resident testimony, or staff interactions are recorded in the published findings available for this review.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating for caring is encouraging, but it is the hardest domain to assess from a report alone because warmth is something you observe, not something you read about. What to look for on a visit: do staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted? Do they crouch to eye level when speaking to someone seated? Do they move without appearing hurried? Good Practice research underlines that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people with advanced dementia, and that person-led care depends on staff knowing individual histories well enough to connect through them.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that for people with advanced dementia, non-verbal cues from staff, including tone of voice, physical proximity, and unhurried movement, are more influential on wellbeing than verbal communication alone.","watch_out":"On your visit, watch what happens when a resident appears confused or distressed. Does a staff member move towards them calmly and speak quietly, or does the interaction feel transactional? This single observation tells you more about the caring culture than any rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated Ashton Grange Good for responsiveness. This domain covers whether the home tailors activities and daily life to individual preferences, whether residents can make choices, and whether end-of-life care is planned and personalised. The published findings do not include specific detail on activity programmes, one-to-one engagement, or how individual preferences are reflected in daily routines.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is referenced in 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities in 21.4%. A Good rating for responsiveness means inspectors were satisfied that the home responds to individuals rather than running a one-size-fits-all programme, but without specific evidence it is hard to know how meaningful the activity offer really is, particularly for residents at a more advanced stage of dementia who may not be able to join group sessions. Good Practice research is clear that tailored one-to-one engagement, including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or simple cooking, produces better outcomes for people with dementia than group activities alone. Ask about this specifically, because it is where the gap between a good inspection rating and a genuinely good day often sits.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and activity-based approaches, including familiar household tasks, reduce distress and improve engagement for people with moderate to advanced dementia, and that one-to-one time is more effective than group activities for this group.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you what happened last Tuesday for a resident who cannot join group sessions. If there is no clear answer, or if the response is that all residents are invited to groups, that is a significant gap worth exploring further."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated Ashton Grange Good for well-led. A named registered manager, Mrs Lesley Martha Dawson, is in post, and Ms Anna Gretchen Selby is the nominated individual for the provider, HC-One Limited. A Good rating means inspectors were satisfied with governance, culture, and leadership. No specific observations about management visibility, staff culture, or how the home handles complaints and incidents are recorded in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality accounts for 23.4% of the weight in our family satisfaction data, and the Good Practice evidence shows that leadership stability predicts quality trajectory: homes where managers stay, know their staff by name, and are visible on the floor tend to sustain good care more reliably than homes with frequent management turnover. HC-One is a large national provider, which means the quality of this individual home depends heavily on the local registered manager rather than the group brand. It is worth asking how long Mrs Dawson has been in post, whether staff feel comfortable raising concerns, and how families are kept informed when something goes wrong. Communication with families is mentioned positively in 11.5% of our family reviews, suggesting it is a meaningful differentiator when it is done well.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that leadership stability, specifically manager tenure and consistent presence on the floor, is one of the strongest predictors of sustained care quality in residential settings.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly how long she has been in post at Ashton Grange, and ask what the staff turnover rate was in the past 12 months. High turnover, particularly among senior care staff, is one of the earliest warning signs that quality may be under pressure even in a recently rated Good home."}

  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 Ashton Grange cares for adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the home's approach to patient interaction and activity engagement can make a real difference to daily life. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.