Elizabeth House Care Home | Runwood Homes Senior Living

What families say

Based on 27 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality62
• Healthcare58
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-03-14 · Report published 2023-03-14 · Inspected 9 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2024 assessment, making it the only domain not to achieve a Good rating. The published summary does not specify which aspect of safety fell short, whether that relates to staffing numbers, medicines management, falls prevention, or another area. The home has 109 beds and cares for people with dementia and physical disabilities, a combination that places higher-than-average demands on safe staffing. This Requires Improvement rating sits alongside four Good ratings in other domains, suggesting the issues may be specific rather than systemic, but that cannot be confirmed without seeing the full report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement in Safe is the finding most likely to give families pause, and rightly so. Our review data shows that families rate staff attentiveness as one of the key factors in feeling confident about a home. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most commonly slips in residential care homes, particularly those with high bed numbers. At 109 beds, this home is large, and the ratio of staff to residents overnight matters considerably for your parent's safety. The improvement from the previous overall Requires Improvement rating to Good overall is a genuinely positive sign, but the Safe domain means you should probe further before deciding.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of safety incidents in care homes, because unfamiliar staff do not know individual residents' behaviours, routines, or risk profiles well enough to respond quickly and correctly.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not a template. Count the number of permanent names versus agency names on each shift, paying particular attention to night shifts. Then ask what specific issue caused the Requires Improvement rating in Safe and what evidence they can show you that it has been resolved."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2024 assessment. This domain covers how well the home plans and delivers care, including training, care planning, access to healthcare, and nutrition. A Good rating here indicates inspectors were satisfied that staff had the skills and knowledge to meet residents' needs and that care plans were adequate. The home lists dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment as specialisms, all of which require specific training and adapted approaches. The published summary does not provide specific examples of care plan quality, training content, or healthcare access arrangements.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated as your parent's condition changes, not written once and filed away. A Good Effective rating suggests the basics are in place, but the published findings do not tell you how frequently plans are reviewed or whether families are involved in those reviews. Dementia-specific training is particularly important in a home of this size, where your parent may be cared for by staff who do not know them as well as a smaller home's team might. Ask specifically about the dementia training programme, not just whether staff have completed it, but what it covers and how recently.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that dementia training is most effective when it goes beyond basic awareness to include practical techniques for communication, managing distress, and supporting independence in everyday tasks such as eating and dressing.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often your parent's care plan would be formally reviewed and whether you would be invited to attend. Then ask what dementia training staff complete and when it was last updated, requesting to see the training records if possible."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2024 assessment. This is the domain most directly related to whether staff are kind, whether your parent is treated with respect, and whether their dignity is maintained in personal care. A Good rating here indicates inspectors found staff interactions to be satisfactory or better. The published summary does not include specific observations of how staff spoke to residents, whether they used preferred names, or how they responded to distress. No verbatim quotes from residents or relatives are available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most mentioned factor in positive family reviews across our data set, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is therefore the most important domain signal for most families. The absence of specific observations in the published findings means you cannot verify the detail from the report alone. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as words for people living with dementia: whether staff make eye contact, move calmly, and take time to settle a resident before beginning personal care are all observable signals you can look for on a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that person-led care requires staff to know each individual's history, preferences, and communication style, and that homes where staff can describe residents as individuals rather than by condition or room number consistently show better wellbeing outcomes.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas when they think no one is observing them. Notice whether they greet residents by name, whether they crouch down to speak to someone seated, and whether they appear rushed. Ask a member of care staff to tell you something personal about your parent's prospective neighbour, to test how well staff know residents as individuals."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2024 assessment. This domain covers whether the home tailors care to individual needs, whether activities are meaningful, whether complaints are handled well, and whether end-of-life care is planned. A Good rating indicates inspectors found the home was meeting people's individual needs adequately. The home cares for a wide range of needs including dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, which requires a genuinely varied and adaptable activities programme. The published summary does not describe specific activities, individual engagement approaches, or complaint handling examples.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and resident happiness together account for nearly half the weight in our family review scoring, reflecting how much families care about their parent having a meaningful daily life, not just being kept safe and clean. Our review data shows 21.4% of positive family reviews specifically mention activities. Good Practice research highlights that individual, one-to-one engagement matters especially for people with advanced dementia who cannot participate in group activities, and that familiar, everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, or tending plants can provide genuine satisfaction and continuity. The published findings do not confirm whether this home provides that level of individual engagement.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-oriented activity approaches, where residents are supported to do familiar, purposeful activities at their own level, produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than passive group entertainment programmes.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities timetable for the past two weeks rather than a future plan. Ask specifically what happens for residents who cannot join group sessions, and whether there is a named activities coordinator with dedicated hours or whether activities are led by care staff alongside other duties."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2024 assessment. This domain covers the quality of management, governance processes, whether staff feel supported, and whether the home learns from incidents and complaints. The home is run by Runwood Homes Limited and has a registered manager in post. A Good Well-led rating, particularly following a previous overall Requires Improvement rating, suggests meaningful improvement in governance. The published summary does not describe the management culture in specific terms or indicate how long the current manager has been in post.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management leadership accounts for 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, making it the fifth most mentioned factor. Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of consistent care quality over time: homes where the manager is known to staff and residents, and where staff feel they can raise concerns, tend to maintain and improve their ratings. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement overall rating to Good is a genuinely encouraging sign that someone is driving positive change. What you cannot tell from the published findings is how long the current manager has been in post and whether that stability will continue.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that homes where staff report feeling empowered to speak up about concerns, and where managers are visible on the floor rather than office-based, consistently show better outcomes for residents across all domains.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post and whether they are planning to stay. Ask how they find out whether care is going well day to day, and what they do when a staff member raises a concern about a resident's care. A manager who can answer the second question with a specific recent example is a better sign than one who describes a policy."}

  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 team supports residents with dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. They're equipped to care for adults of all ages, including those under 65 who need specialist residential support.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff have experience supporting residents with different types of dementia. The home provides specialist dementia care as part of their core services, with facilities and routines adapted for residents living with cognitive changes. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.