Bartlett’s Residential Care Home

What families say

Families describe feeling genuinely included in daily life here, from joining in activities to regular updates about their loved one's day. The stable staff team means residents see familiar faces each morning, creating the continuity that matters so much in care settings.

Based on 21 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership60
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-12-19 · Report published 2018-12-19 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for safety at its February 2021 inspection. No specific detail about falls management, medicines handling, infection control, staffing ratios, or agency use is included in the published report. The July 2023 monitoring review did not identify any new safety concerns. With 62 beds and a dementia specialism, night staffing levels are a particularly important question the inspection record does not answer.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a reasonable baseline, but it is now more than three years old and the published findings give you very little to go on. Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips in residential homes, and that reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency that people with dementia depend on. Because the report does not record specific staffing numbers, you need to ask for this information directly. Our review data shows that families who later report concerns most often cite not knowing who was caring for their parent overnight.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) found that night staffing ratios and agency staff consistency are the two factors most strongly associated with safety incidents in residential dementia care. Neither is addressed in the published findings for this home.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past seven days, not the planned template. Count how many shifts were covered by agency staff, and ask how many permanent carers are on duty overnight for the 62 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at its February 2021 inspection. No specific detail about care plan content, review frequency, dementia training, GP access, or food quality is included in the published report. The dementia specialism is declared but not described. The inspection findings do not record whether families are involved in care planning or how often plans are updated.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home means knowing your parent as an individual, not just managing their conditions. Good Practice evidence shows that care plans should function as living documents, updated after any significant change and reviewed with families at least every three months. The published findings do not confirm whether this happens at Bartletts. Food quality is consistently one of the most mentioned themes in our family review data (referenced in 20.9% of positive reviews), but the inspection record contains nothing on this. Observe a mealtime on your visit and ask whether your parent's dietary preferences would be recorded and acted on from day one.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that dementia-specific training content, not just completion rates, matters. Homes that trained staff in non-verbal communication and person-led approaches showed measurably better outcomes for residents with advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the activities and care team what dementia-specific training each carer has completed in the last 12 months, who delivered it, and whether it covered non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches, not just medication awareness."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for caring at its February 2021 inspection. No inspector observations about staff warmth, use of preferred names, pace of care, or response to distress are included in the published report. No resident or family quotes are recorded. The Good rating suggests inspectors were satisfied, but the evidence behind that judgement is not visible in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity account for a further 55.2%. These are the things families most need to see for themselves. Because the inspection record contains no observations or testimony on this, you cannot rely on the published findings alone. On your visit, watch how staff greet your parent when they enter the room, whether they use the name your parent prefers, and whether interactions feel unhurried or transactional. These are things you can assess within the first 30 minutes.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research highlights that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people with dementia. Staff who make eye contact, crouch to the resident's level, and use a calm tone produce measurably lower agitation levels, even when verbal communication is limited.","watch_out":"During your visit, stand in a communal area for ten minutes and watch how staff interact with residents who are not asking for anything. Are those interactions initiated by the staff member, or does the staff member only respond when spoken to?"}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for responsiveness at its February 2021 inspection. No detail about the activity programme, individual engagement for people with advanced dementia, end-of-life planning, or complaint handling is included in the published report. The dementia specialism is listed but no information is provided about how the home tailors activities or daily routines to individual histories and preferences.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is the third most important theme in our family review data, mentioned in 27.1% of positive reviews. Families consistently tell us that a varied and meaningful activity programme is one of the clearest visible signs that a home treats residents as individuals. Good Practice evidence strongly supports one-to-one activity for people with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions, but the inspection record does not confirm whether this happens at Bartletts. Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of our positive review themes, and the absence of any detail here means you need to investigate this directly before making a decision.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and household-task activity approaches, such as folding, gardening, and simple cooking, produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia than passive entertainment, and that group-only activity programmes leave people with advanced dementia unstimulated for large parts of the day.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule for the past two weeks and ask the activities coordinator to describe, specifically, what they would do with your parent on a day when your parent did not want to join a group session."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for leadership at its February 2021 inspection. A named registered manager, Ms Mibell Alcantara Hernandez, and a nominated individual, Mr Anil Dhanani, are recorded. No detail is provided about manager visibility, staff culture, governance processes, incident learning, or how the home handles complaints and family communication. The July 2023 monitoring review did not raise concerns about leadership.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research shows that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. A registered manager who is known to residents and staff by name, and who is regularly present on the floor rather than office-based, creates a culture where staff feel confident to raise concerns. The inspection record names the manager but tells you nothing about her presence or how staff experience her leadership. Management and communication with families together account for 34.9% of our positive review themes, making this one of the most important areas to probe directly. Ask specifically how long the current manager has been in post and what has changed in the last year.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that homes with a stable, visible manager who empowers staff to raise concerns from the bottom up consistently outperform homes where leadership is administrative rather than relational, regardless of the size of the home.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: how long have you been in this role, what is your biggest current challenge, and what is the one thing you most want to improve in the next six months? The quality of the answer tells you as much as the content."}

  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 over 65 and under 65, with particular experience supporting people living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the combination of familiar staff faces and structured daily activities helps create reassuring routines. The team understands how to adapt their approach as needs change over time. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.