Edmund House Care Home – Bupa

What families say

Visitors consistently notice how friendly and caring the staff are here. There's a real sense that the team takes pride in creating an environment where residents can enjoy regular activities and social events that keep everyone engaged throughout the week.

Based on 13 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-02-26 · Report published 2019-02-26 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Edmund House was rated Good for safety at its March 2022 inspection. No specific findings about staffing levels, medicines management, falls prevention, or infection control were included in the published report text. The home is registered and active, with no dormancy recorded. A monitoring review in July 2023 found no new safety concerns requiring reassessment.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating means inspectors were satisfied that the fundamental requirements were met, but without published detail it is difficult to know exactly what was observed. Research in the Good Practice evidence base consistently flags night staffing as the point where safety risks are highest in residential care homes, and agency reliance as a factor that undermines consistency for people living with dementia. You cannot assess either of those things from this report alone. On your visit, try to arrive at a time when shift handover might be happening so you can observe how many staff are present and how settled the atmosphere feels.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (March 2026) found that inadequate night staffing is one of the most common factors in preventable harm in residential dementia care, and that high agency use disrupts the familiarity that helps people with dementia feel safe.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for last week, not a template. Count how many permanent staff were on the dementia unit on night shifts, and ask what percentage of shifts in the last month were covered by agency workers."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Inspectors rated Edmund House Good for effectiveness in March 2022. The home is registered for dementia care, which requires specific staff training and care planning standards. No specific detail about care plan content, GP access, dementia training, or food quality was included in the published report. The July 2023 review found no concerns about effectiveness.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Food quality accounts for 20.9% of positive family reviews in DCC data, and healthcare access accounts for 20.2%, making these two of the most practically important things families notice. A Good effectiveness rating suggests the basics are in place, but with no published specifics you cannot know from this report whether your parent's care plan would reflect their personal history, food preferences, and individual routines. The Good Practice evidence base underlines that care plans work best as living documents updated by people who know the resident well, not as paperwork filed at admission.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that dementia care quality is strongly linked to whether care plans are regularly updated with input from the person and their family, and whether staff have received training that goes beyond basic dementia awareness to include communication and behaviour support.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample of how the home records a resident's personal history and preferences before they move in, and ask how often care plans are reviewed and whether families are invited to contribute to those reviews."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Edmund House was rated Good for caring at its March 2022 inspection. No direct inspector observations about staff warmth, use of preferred names, pace of care, or responses to distress were published in the available report text. No resident or family quotes were included. The overall Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the standard of caring interactions observed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of positive family reviews in DCC data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity together account for 55.2%. These are the things families notice most, and they are also the hardest to assess from a published rating alone. A Good caring rating is encouraging, but the only reliable way to judge this is to visit unannounced or at a less-expected time, such as mid-morning on a weekday, and observe whether staff greet your parent by name, whether interactions feel unhurried, and whether staff notice and respond to non-verbal signals of discomfort or distress.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review highlights that for people living with dementia, non-verbal communication from staff matters as much as words. Staff who slow down, make eye contact, and use a calm tone produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than those who complete tasks efficiently but without that attentiveness.","watch_out":"When you visit, find a spot in a communal area and watch how staff pass residents who are seated nearby. Do staff stop and make eye contact, use names, and acknowledge the person? Or do they move through the space focused on tasks? That small interaction tells you a great deal."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Edmund House was rated Good for responsiveness at its March 2022 inspection. The home is registered for dementia care and has 56 beds. No specific detail about activity programmes, individual engagement, complaints handling, or end-of-life planning was published in the available report. The July 2023 monitoring review found no responsiveness concerns.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness accounts for 27.1% of positive family reviews in DCC data, and activities account for 21.4%. A Good responsive rating tells you the inspection threshold was met, but for a parent living with dementia, what matters is whether there is something meaningful to do between meals and personal care, and whether that is tailored to their individual interests rather than being the same group activity for everyone. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that people with advanced dementia benefit most from one-to-one engagement and familiar household tasks rather than formal group sessions, and that this kind of provision is often the first thing to slip when staffing is stretched.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that Montessori-based and life-history-informed individual activities produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia than group-only programmes, and that one-to-one time is often absent in homes where it is most needed.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last week's actual activity records, not a planned schedule. Find out specifically what happens for residents who cannot join group sessions, and ask how staff know what each resident enjoyed doing before they moved in."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Edmund House was rated Good for well-led at its March 2022 inspection. A named registered manager, Ms Michelle Mackenzie, is recorded as in post, and a nominated individual, Mr Donald Day, is also named. The home is operated by Bupa Care Homes. No specific detail about management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home responds to incidents was published in the available report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality accounts for 23.4% of positive family reviews in DCC data, and communication with families accounts for 11.5%. Having a stable, named registered manager is a positive sign, and the Good Practice evidence base is consistent in finding that leadership stability predicts quality trajectory over time. What you cannot tell from this report is how long the current manager has been in post, whether staff feel supported to raise concerns, or how the home communicates with families when something changes. These are worth exploring directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that homes with stable, visible management where staff feel safe to speak up consistently outperform homes where leadership is distant or frequently changing, even when other resources are comparable.","watch_out":"When you meet the manager, ask how long they have been in post at Edmund House and whether they were managing during the 2022 inspection. Then ask what they changed or improved as a result of that inspection. A specific answer suggests genuine engagement with the 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 Edmund House provides specialist care for people living with dementia, alongside general care for adults over 65.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the combination of consistent routines, engaging activities and patient staff helps create a supportive environment where people can maintain their sense of self. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.