Bearwood Nursing Home

What families say

Families talk about staff who take time to know each resident properly. Whether it's nurses checking in during rounds or reception staff greeting visitors, the approach feels patient and unhurried. Relatives of residents with dementia particularly mention how their loved ones seem content and well-settled.

Based on 32 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth45
• Compassion & dignity42
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality55
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2020-03-06 · Report published 2020-03-06 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. The home is a 63-bed nursing home registered to care for people living with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments, all of which require careful risk management. The available published text does not include specific detail on staffing numbers, medicines management, falls monitoring, or infection control practices observed during the inspection. A monitoring review in July 2023 did not identify new safety concerns.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, but the absence of specific detail in the published text means you cannot rely on this report alone to assess whether your parent would be safe here. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies night staffing as the area where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and a 63-bed nursing home with residents living with dementia needs robust overnight cover. The inspection text does not record what night staffing looks like here. Agency staff use is another key marker: homes that rely heavily on agency workers find it harder to maintain the consistent, familiar presence that people living with dementia need.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety incidents, particularly falls and medication errors, are more likely to occur during night shifts and on days when agency staff replace permanent team members. Consistent staffing is identified as one of the strongest protective factors.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Ask specifically how many permanent carers and senior staff are on duty overnight, and how many nights in the past month were covered by agency staff."}

  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 whether staff have the skills and knowledge to meet your parent's needs, whether care plans are detailed and up to date, and whether health needs such as GP access and medicines management are handled well. The home is registered for dementia care, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. No specific detail on training content, care plan quality, or healthcare arrangements is included in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for effectiveness is a positive sign, but without specific published detail it is difficult to know what the inspector actually observed. For a parent living with dementia, the quality of the care plan matters enormously: it should record not just medical needs but personal history, preferred routines, favourite foods, and how your parent communicates. Our Good Practice evidence base shows that care plans treated as living documents, updated after every significant change and reviewed with families, produce measurably better outcomes for people with dementia. The Effective rating suggests the basics are in place, but you should check whether that extends to genuine personalisation.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training, when it goes beyond basic awareness to include person-centred communication techniques, produces measurable improvements in staff confidence and resident wellbeing. Ask what the training actually covers, not just how many hours staff complete.","watch_out":"Ask to see the care plan for a resident with dementia (with appropriate consent or as a hypothetical example of how it is structured). Check whether it records the person's life history, preferred name, daily routine preferences, and how they communicate when distressed, not just their medical diagnoses and medications."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2022 inspection. This is the domain that assesses whether staff treat residents with kindness, whether dignity and privacy are respected, and whether people are supported to be as independent as possible. A monitoring review in July 2023 did not trigger a reassessment, but that review was desk-based and did not involve inspectors visiting the home. The specific reasons for the Requires Improvement rating are not detailed in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single strongest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appears in 55.2%. A Requires Improvement rating in this domain is therefore the most important finding in this report for you as a family member. It means that at the point of inspection, inspectors identified something meaningful was falling short in how residents were treated day to day. The July 2023 monitoring review did not change the rating, which means it has not been upgraded following a full re-inspection. You should treat this as an open question that requires a direct conversation with the manager and your own careful observation on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base highlights that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people living with dementia. Staff who knock before entering rooms, use preferred names without prompting, make eye contact, and work at an unhurried pace are demonstrating person-centred care in observable, concrete ways. These are things you can watch for on a visit.","watch_out":"When you visit, pay attention to how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas, not just when they know you are watching. Do staff use residents' preferred names? Do they crouch to eye level? Do they move without rushing? Ask the manager specifically what the January 2022 inspection found in the Caring domain and what has changed since."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This domain assesses whether the home responds to individual needs and preferences, whether activities are meaningful and varied, and whether complaints are handled well. The home is registered to care for people with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments, which requires a range of tailored approaches. No specific detail on the activities programme, individual engagement, or complaints handling is included in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for responsiveness suggests the home has systems in place to respond to individual needs, but the lack of published detail means you cannot assess the quality of activities provision from this report alone. Activities engagement is cited in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness appears in 27.1%. For a parent living with dementia, the question is not just whether a group activity programme exists, but whether your parent will be engaged as an individual if they cannot join group sessions. Our Good Practice evidence shows that one-to-one engagement and familiar household tasks, such as folding, sorting, or gardening, often produce better wellbeing outcomes for people with advanced dementia than formal group activities.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review identifies Montessori-based approaches and the use of familiar everyday tasks as effective in maintaining a sense of purpose and reducing distress in people living with dementia, particularly those who can no longer participate in structured group activities.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what would happen for your parent on a day when they could not or did not want to join a group session. Ask who would sit with them, what they would do, and how staff would know what your parent enjoys."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. A named registered manager, Miss Lincymol Thomas, is recorded as being in post, with a nominated individual, Ms Amanda Jayne Robinson, also identified. This suggests a stable leadership structure at the time of the inspection. The monitoring review in July 2023 did not identify governance concerns. No specific detail on management visibility, staff culture, or quality monitoring systems is included in the available published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good leadership is the foundation that holds everything else together. Our Good Practice evidence identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in a care home. A registered manager who is known to residents and staff, and who is visible on the floor rather than office-bound, creates the conditions for a culture where staff feel confident to raise concerns. The Caring domain's Requires Improvement rating does raise a question about what quality monitoring was in place before the 2022 inspection, and whether it was picking up the issues inspectors found. A good manager will be able to explain clearly what the inspection identified and demonstrate what has changed since.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to speak up without fear of negative consequences have lower rates of undignified care and better outcomes for residents. The culture set by senior leadership is the primary determinant of whether staff feel that safety and dignity.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post, and whether there have been significant changes to the senior team since the January 2022 inspection. Ask what monitoring system the home now uses to check that the Caring improvements are being maintained, and whether families are involved in that process."}

  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 with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. This combination means they're equipped for residents whose needs might be complex or changing.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, families report consistent medication schedules and dignified daily support. Even residents who've been there several years are described as maintaining good spirits and staying involved in home life. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.