Brierton Lodge Care Home

What families say

People describe the atmosphere here as friendly and welcoming. Family members mention how staff take time to chat and make everyone feel at ease when they visit.

Based on 8 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 2023-09-08 · Report published 2023-09-08 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the June 2023 inspection. This rating typically reflects adequate staffing, medicines management, infection control, and learning from incidents. The published text does not include specific observations about any of these areas. No concerns or breaches were recorded. The home's 58 beds serve a mixed population including people with dementia and physical disabilities, which makes robust night staffing particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the inspection text gives you very little detail to go on. Our Good Practice evidence base, drawn from 61 studies, highlights that night staffing is the point at which safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency that people living with dementia particularly need. The published findings do not record night staffing ratios or agency use for Brierton Lodge, so you will need to ask directly. On a visit, note how quickly staff respond when a resident needs something, and whether the environment feels calm and supervised.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that safety incidents in care homes are disproportionately concentrated on night shifts and that homes with high agency staff turnover show measurably weaker safeguarding cultures.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent members of staff are on duty on the dementia unit after 8pm, and what was the agency usage rate in the last three months? Request to see last week's actual rota, not a template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the June 2023 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and whether care meets people's needs. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which should mean specific training and care planning approaches are in place. No specific findings about dementia training content, care plan quality, GP access, or food provision are recorded in the published text. No concerns were identified.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in dementia care goes beyond a Good rating. Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans must be living documents, updated regularly and co-produced with families, not written once and filed. It also shows that regular GP access and proactive health monitoring are markers that separate genuinely effective homes from those that are merely compliant. Because the published text does not describe how Brierton Lodge approaches any of these areas, you should ask specifically how often your parent's care plan would be reviewed, whether you would be invited to those reviews, and how the home handles GP referrals.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that homes where families are actively included in care plan reviews report significantly higher satisfaction scores and that dementia-specific training, particularly training focused on non-verbal communication, is a strong predictor of person-centred outcomes.","watch_out":"Ask to see a blank example care plan template and ask how often it is reviewed. Then ask: would I be contacted before a review, and could I contribute to it? Also ask what dementia training all care staff complete before working on the floor."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the June 2023 inspection. This is the domain most closely tied to what families notice and feel on a visit: whether staff are warm, unhurried, and genuinely respectful. The published inspection text does not include any direct observations of staff interactions, resident responses, or specific examples of dignity in practice. No concerns were recorded. The absence of detail means the Good rating here cannot be independently verified from the published text alone.","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 feel most acutely when they visit. Because the published inspection text does not include specific observations for Brierton Lodge, the Good rating alone cannot tell you what daily kindness looks like here. On a visit, watch whether staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, whether they crouch down to speak at eye level with people who are seated, and whether interactions feel warm rather than transactional.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal communication in dementia care, and that person-led care requires staff to know each individual's history, preferences, and communication style, not just their clinical needs.","watch_out":"On your visit, observe how a staff member responds when a resident becomes distressed or confused. Do they crouch down, speak calmly, and use the person's name? Or do they redirect quickly without engaging? This tells you more than any rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the June 2023 inspection. This domain covers whether the home organises its care around individuals rather than institutional routines, including activities, engagement, and how it responds to complaints and changing needs. The home serves people with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, which requires a varied and individually tailored approach to daily life. No specific activities, individual engagement examples, or complaint-handling processes are described in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness accounts for a further 27.1%. But our Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are not enough, particularly for people in more advanced stages of dementia who may not be able to participate. The evidence strongly supports one-to-one engagement, Montessori-based approaches using familiar household tasks, and sensory activities tailored to the individual. Because the published text gives no detail about how Brierton Lodge approaches this, it is one of the most important things to explore on a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that one-to-one engagement for people who cannot participate in group activities is one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing and reduced distress in people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities timetable and then ask: what happens for a resident who cannot join in a group session? Is there a named person responsible for one-to-one engagement, and how many hours per week are dedicated to it?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the June 2023 inspection. A named registered manager, Mrs Jayne Ann Parkins, is confirmed as in post, and a nominated individual, Ms Anna Gretchen Selby, is also identified. The home is operated by HC-One No.1 Limited. A Good Well-led rating typically reflects visible management, a positive staff culture, robust governance, and learning from incidents and complaints. None of these specific elements are described in detail in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, and our Good Practice evidence base confirms that homes where staff feel able to speak up without fear produce measurably better outcomes. Communication with families accounts for 11.5% of positive review themes in our data. The presence of a named registered manager is a positive sign, but it tells you nothing about how long that person has been in post, whether staff feel supported, or how the home communicates with families when something goes wrong. These are all questions worth asking directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that leadership stability, defined as a consistent registered manager in post for more than 12 months, is one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality, and that homes with bottom-up empowerment cultures report fewer incidents and higher staff retention.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post at Brierton Lodge, and ask what the staff turnover rate was in the last 12 months. Then ask: if something went wrong with my parent's care, how would I find out, and who would I speak to?"}

  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 provides specialist support for residents living with dementia and mental health conditions. They also care for people with physical disabilities, ensuring each resident gets the right level of assistance.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents with dementia, the team works to create a supportive environment. Staff understand the importance of patience and familiarity in helping residents feel secure. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.