Earlsfield Court Care Home

What families say

People describe walking into somewhere that feels unhurried and warm, where staff stop to engage properly with both residents and visitors. The whole environment seems designed to put people at ease, from the spacious communal areas to the way staff conduct themselves with genuine friendliness.

Based on 34 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity60
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership35
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2021-09-23 · Report published 2021-09-23

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the August 2021 inspection. This means inspectors were broadly satisfied with how the home manages risk, staffing, medicines, and infection control. No specific observations, staff ratios, or incident data are recorded in the published summary. The home supports people with dementia and physical disabilities, which places particular demands on safe practice. No concerns were raised in the Safe domain at that time.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Safe is reassuring as a starting point, but the published summary does not tell you how many permanent carers are on duty at night, how often agency staff are used, or how the home logs and learns from falls or incidents. Good Practice research from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University review identifies night staffing as the point where safety most commonly slips, particularly in homes supporting people with dementia. With 72 residents across mixed dependency needs, staffing ratios matter enormously. The absence of specific detail here means you need to ask these questions directly rather than assume they are answered by the Good rating alone.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies agency staff reliance as a consistent risk factor for safety lapses, because unfamiliar workers are less able to recognise early signs of deterioration in individual residents. Ask specifically about permanent versus agency staffing on nights.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and ask what the overnight staffing ratio is for each unit."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the August 2021 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. No specific examples of care plan content, GP access arrangements, or dementia training programmes are recorded in the published summary. The home's specialisms include dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, all of which require specific staff competencies. A Good rating here indicates inspectors were satisfied overall, but the level of detail available to families is limited.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Effective suggests staff have the training they need and that care plans are being used to guide your parent's care, but the published findings do not confirm whether dementia-specific training is up to date or whether families are included in care plan reviews. Food quality, which our review data shows matters to families (referenced in 20.9% of positive reviews) is not mentioned at all in the published summary. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed frequently and updated when a person's needs change. Without specific detail here, the only way to judge this is to ask to see a sample care plan format and to ask how recently staff completed dementia training.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base finds that dementia training covering non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches is a stronger predictor of care quality than generic care training. Ask what specific dementia training the staff team has completed and when it was last updated.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often care plans are formally reviewed and whether families are invited to attend. Then ask to see the most recent training record for dementia care to check whether it goes beyond basic awareness."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the August 2021 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. No direct inspector observations, resident quotes, or relative feedback are recorded in the published summary. A Good rating indicates that inspectors were satisfied with the quality of interactions they witnessed, but no specific examples are available to help families judge what daily life looks like for your parent. The home supports people with dementia and sensory impairment, where respectful, unhurried communication is especially important.","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 compassionate treatment is mentioned in 55.2%. These are the things families notice most and remember longest. A Good rating in Caring is positive, but without specific inspector observations, you cannot know from the published report alone whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they move without hurry, or how they respond when someone with dementia becomes distressed. Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication, tone of voice, and unhurried pace matter as much as words, particularly for people in later stages of dementia. You will need to observe this yourself on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies person-led care, where staff know individual histories, preferences, and communication styles, as the foundation of genuine dignity in dementia care. Homes that record and use this information consistently produce better outcomes for residents.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how staff greet your parent's floor or unit without announcing themselves. Notice whether they use residents' preferred names, whether they make eye contact and speak at a calm pace, and whether anyone appears to be waiting for help without a response."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the August 2021 inspection. This domain covers activities, engagement, individuality, and end-of-life care. No specific activity programmes, one-to-one engagement records, or end-of-life care examples are recorded in the published summary. The home supports people with dementia and a range of other needs, where tailored individual engagement is particularly important. A Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied at the time of the visit, but no detail is available to families from the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness is referenced in 27.1%. These are not minor concerns: for a parent with dementia, boredom and lack of stimulation can accelerate decline and increase distress. Good Practice research identifies tailored one-to-one activities, not just group sessions, as especially important for people who can no longer participate in communal settings. The published findings do not confirm whether Earlsfield Court offers this. The home has a large capacity of 72 beds across mixed needs, which can make individual engagement harder to sustain without a dedicated activities team. Ask directly how your parent's specific interests and former routines would be built into their daily life.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base finds that Montessori-based approaches and activities built around everyday household tasks produce measurable reductions in distress for people with dementia, compared with passive or group-only activity programmes.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule for the past two weeks, not a printed template. Ask specifically how many one-to-one activity sessions were offered to residents who could not join group activities, and who delivered them."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the August 2021 inspection. This is the only domain where inspectors found the home falling short of the required standard. The published summary does not explain the specific reasons for this rating or detail what actions the home was required to take. A named registered manager and nominated individual are in place. A monitoring review in July 2023 found no evidence to change the rating, meaning Requires Improvement in Well-led remains the official position more than two years after the inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement in Well-led is the finding that should concern you most when choosing a home for your parent. Our family review data shows that management and communication appear in 23.4% of positive reviews, and Good Practice research is consistent: leadership stability directly predicts whether care quality is maintained or declines over time. A Well-led rating of Requires Improvement means inspectors found gaps in governance, oversight, or accountability. Without the full published report, it is not possible to know exactly what those gaps were. What matters now is what has changed since August 2021. The July 2023 monitoring review did not find evidence to change the rating upward, which means the situation had not demonstrably improved by that point. This should be a central question in any conversation with the manager.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base finds that homes where staff feel able to speak up about concerns, and where management acts visibly on feedback, consistently outperform homes with opaque or distant leadership. The quality of governance at the top directly shapes what your parent experiences every day.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what specific issues led to the Requires Improvement in Well-led, what actions were taken in response, and what evidence exists that those actions have made a difference. Ask whether there has been a full inspection since August 2021 and, if not, why not."}

  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 people with dementia, sensory impairments, and physical disabilities, welcoming residents both under and over 65.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the calm atmosphere and consistent staff approach help create a reassuring environment. The modern, well-designed spaces support orientation and comfort. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.