Ayresome Court Care Home

What families say

Several families have shared how staff create moments of joy even during difficult times, from coordinating special birthday celebrations to ensuring residents feel recognised and valued. The care team's approach to end-of-life support has particularly touched families, who describe compassionate staff who understand when comfort matters most.

Based on 6 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity75
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement90
• Food quality60
• Healthcare72
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness80

What inspectors found

Inspected 2020-02-26 · Report published 2020-02-26 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This follows a previous Requires Improvement rating, which means inspectors found enough improvement to be satisfied that risks are being managed. The home provides nursing care for 43 people, including those living with dementia and mental health conditions, making safe staffing and medication management particularly important. The published report does not include specific detail on staffing ratios, night cover, or falls management processes. A Good rating in Safe indicates no significant concerns were identified.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families considering a nursing home with a dementia specialism, the improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is reassuring. It means the home identified what was not working and fixed it before this inspection, which is itself a sign of a functioning leadership team. However, Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips in care homes, and the published report gives you no numbers on this. Our review data shows that families mention staff attentiveness in about 14% of positive reviews, often describing specific moments when a parent was noticed quickly. You cannot assess that from this report alone, so plan a visit that includes a conversation about overnight cover.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of safety incidents in care homes. Ask specifically whether the same carers cover night shifts regularly, or whether nights rely on bank and agency staff.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm, and when did the last agency carer work a night shift here? Ask to see last week's actual rota rather than the template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The home lists dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment as specialisms, which means staff should hold training relevant to those needs. No specific detail on dementia training content, GP access frequency, or care plan processes is recorded in the available published summary. A Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with how the home puts knowledge into practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Healthcare and dementia-specific care together account for around a third of the family satisfaction themes in our review data. What families most want to know is whether staff actually understand what their parent is experiencing, not just whether a training certificate exists on a file. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans should be treated as living documents, reviewed with family involvement, not completed once and filed. The inspection does not tell you how often plans are reviewed here or whether families are invited to contribute. This is one of the most important questions to ask on a visit, particularly if your parent's needs are changing.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training is most effective when it goes beyond basic awareness to include communication techniques, behaviour understanding, and person-history work. Ask what the training actually covers, not just how many hours staff complete.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: when was the last care plan review for a resident with dementia, who was in the room for that conversation, and can you see a sample of how individual histories and preferences are recorded in the plan?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain is where inspectors assess whether staff treat people with dignity, respect their privacy, support their independence, and respond to them as individuals. A Good rating means inspectors were satisfied on these measures. However, the published summary does not include specific observations of staff interactions, quotes from residents about how they feel treated, or examples of dignity in practice. The home provides care for people with a range of conditions, including dementia and mental health conditions, where non-verbal communication and reading emotional cues are particularly important.","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. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are not abstract qualities: families describe them in terms of very specific moments, a staff member using a parent's preferred name, pausing to listen without rushing, noticing when someone is upset before they can say so. The inspection found this domain to be Good, but the published text does not give you the concrete examples that would let you feel confident rather than hopeful. Plan your visit to arrive during a quiet part of the day and watch how staff walk past residents in corridors: do they stop, make eye contact, use a name?","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies non-verbal communication as at least as important as verbal interaction for people living with advanced dementia. Staff who instinctively make eye contact, match pace, and use touch appropriately are demonstrating a level of skill that goes well beyond compliance.","watch_out":"On your visit, listen for whether staff use your parent's preferred name or a generic term. Notice whether interactions feel unhurried, and watch how a staff member responds when someone with dementia appears unsettled in a communal area."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Outstanding

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Outstanding at the January 2022 inspection. This is the home's strongest result and covers how well the home tailors care and activity to individual people, responds to changing needs, and supports meaningful engagement. An Outstanding rating requires inspectors to find specific, compelling evidence, not just general good intentions. This is particularly significant for a home that supports people living with dementia, physical disabilities, and mental health conditions. The home has maintained this rating while improving from Requires Improvement overall, which suggests the person-centred approach was already strong before other areas were brought up to standard.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"An Outstanding rating for responsiveness is the finding most likely to make a real difference to your parent's daily life. Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness for 27.1%. What this rating tells you is that inspectors found robust, individual-level evidence that people here are not simply kept safe and comfortable but are actively supported to have a life. For someone living with dementia, that might mean one-to-one time with a familiar carer, a personalised activity connected to a lifelong interest, or support to do everyday tasks that preserve a sense of purpose. The inspection does not spell out exactly what that looks like at Ayresome Court, so ask the home to show you.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found strong evidence that Montessori-based and individual activity approaches significantly reduce distress and improve wellbeing in people with moderate to advanced dementia. Everyday household tasks and activities linked to personal history are more effective than group entertainment alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a person with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions does between 2pm and 4pm on a typical afternoon. The answer will tell you whether individual engagement is genuinely built into the day or whether it depends on a member of staff having a spare moment."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. The home is run by Akari Care Limited and has a registered manager and a nominated individual in post. Critically, the home improved from a previous Requires Improvement rating to Good across all domains, which indicates the leadership team identified weaknesses and acted on them effectively. No specific detail on manager tenure, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home handles complaints appears in the available published summary. A Good Well-led rating means inspectors were satisfied that there is a functioning culture of accountability.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership account for 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and the Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in a care home. The improvement story at Ayresome Court is encouraging: a home that can move from Requires Improvement to Good, and achieve Outstanding in one domain along the way, has demonstrated it can learn and change. What you cannot tell from the published report is how long the current manager has been in post, whether they are visible day-to-day on the floor, and how staff feel about speaking up when something is wrong. Communication with families accounts for 11.5% of positive reviews, and this is worth asking about directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that bottom-up empowerment, where care staff feel confident to raise concerns and see action taken, is a stronger predictor of sustained quality than top-down governance systems alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post at Ayresome Court, and ask a carer you meet on the floor: if you noticed something that worried you about a resident, what would you do? The answer to both questions will tell you more 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 home cares for adults both under and over 65 with complex needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. This broad expertise means staff work with residents facing very different challenges.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff here support residents living with dementia alongside other complex conditions. The team understands how dementia affects each person differently, particularly when combined with physical health needs. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.