Elm Lodge Care Home – Minster Care Group

What families say

Families describe how their loved ones build strong connections here, with residents actually wanting to return after hospital visits. The atmosphere seems to foster real relationships between carers and residents, creating a sense of belonging that goes beyond basic care needs.

Based on 23 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth70
• Compassion & dignity70
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-02-24 · Report published 2023-02-24 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection rated safety as Good at the assessment completed on 30 January 2024. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. The published report does not include specific staffing ratios, details of falls management, or observations of medicines administration. The previous rating was Requires Improvement, which means there were concerns at an earlier inspection that the home has since addressed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the absence of specific detail in the published report means you cannot yet know what day-to-day safety looks like at Elm Lodge. Good Practice evidence from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (March 2026) consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in care homes: the question is not just whether there are enough staff overall, but whether there are enough experienced, permanent staff after 8pm. The fact that the home improved from Requires Improvement is a positive sign that management responded to earlier concerns, but you should find out what those concerns were and satisfy yourself that the fixes are embedded, not just in place for inspection.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base highlights that over-reliance on agency staff undermines the consistent, familiar presence that people living with dementia need for both safety and wellbeing. Homes with a stable permanent team have better incident outcomes and fewer avoidable harms.","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 night shift versus agency names, and ask what the nurse-to-resident ratio is overnight for 75 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Effectiveness was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and nutrition. The published report does not describe the content of dementia training, how frequently care plans are reviewed, how GP access is arranged, or how the home manages nutrition for residents with swallowing difficulties or complex dietary needs. Elm Lodge cares for people with dementia and physical disabilities, which requires specific, evidenced training rather than generic care skills.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness is where the Good Practice research is most specific. The IFF Research review found that care plans function as living documents only when staff are trained to update them in response to day-to-day changes, not just at scheduled review points. For your parent living with dementia, this means the care plan should reflect how they communicate distress, what foods they prefer, what time of day they are most settled, and what their history and identity are, not just their clinical needs. A Good rating here is encouraging, but the lack of detail in the published report means you cannot verify this from the inspection alone. Dementia-specific training (20.2% of positive family reviews explicitly mention healthcare competence) is something to probe directly.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training which covers non-verbal communication, behavioural expressions of need, and person-centred history-taking produces measurably better outcomes for residents than generic care training alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what specific dementia training the permanent care staff have completed in the past 12 months, and whether any staff hold a formal dementia care qualification such as the Dementia Care Mapping practitioner award or an equivalent. Then ask how recently your parent's care plan would be reviewed after admission."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Caring was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and how staff support residents to maintain independence. No direct observations of staff interactions, resident testimony, or family quotes appear in the published report text. The Good rating indicates that inspectors were satisfied with what they observed, but the specific evidence behind that judgement is not described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our DementiaCareChoices review data, mentioned explicitly in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. These are not abstract values: they show up in concrete moments, whether a staff member knocks before entering a room, whether they use your parent's preferred name rather than a generic term of address, and whether they sit down to talk at eye level rather than standing over someone. Because the published inspection report gives no specific observations here, you need to form your own judgement on a visit. The Good rating tells you inspectors did not find cause for concern. Your visit will tell you whether the warmth feels genuine.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies non-verbal communication as critically important for people living with advanced dementia: tone of voice, physical proximity, and unhurried movement matter as much as words. Homes where staff consistently demonstrate these behaviours score significantly higher on resident wellbeing measures.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas when they think no one senior is observing. Notice whether they make eye contact, use the person's name, and move without apparent hurry. These informal moments are more revealing than anything you will be told in a formal tour."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Responsiveness was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. This domain covers activities and engagement, how the home meets individual preferences, complaint handling, and end-of-life care. The published report gives no description of the activity programme, no mention of how the home supports people at more advanced stages of dementia who cannot join group activities, and no detail on how individual preferences are recorded or acted on. Elm Lodge has 75 beds and cares for people with both dementia and physical disabilities, a mix that typically requires varied, adaptable programming.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, but what families describe valuing is not a packed programme: it is the sense that their parent is seen as an individual. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that one-to-one engagement, everyday household tasks, and sensory activities for people who cannot participate in group sessions are as important as organised entertainment. A Good rating here is encouraging, but 21 checklist items across this inspection were not assessed in the published report, so you cannot know from the document alone how responsive Elm Lodge is to your parent specifically. Ask to see the activity record for a specific resident with a similar profile to your parent, not just the general timetable.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that Montessori-based and task-oriented individual activities produce better engagement and reduced distress for people with moderate to advanced dementia compared with group entertainment alone. Homes that rely primarily on group sessions may leave the most vulnerable residents without meaningful stimulation for most of the day.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join a group session. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, press for specifics about one-to-one time, who delivers it, and how often."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Leadership was rated Good at the January 2024 inspection. Miss Foluke Tella is the registered manager and Mr Colin William Farebrother is the nominated individual for the provider, Minster Care Management Limited. The published report does not describe how visible the manager is on the floor, whether staff feel supported to raise concerns, or how the home handles governance, audits, and learning from incidents. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good suggests the management team has made meaningful changes since the earlier inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership appear in 23.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and the Good Practice evidence base is direct: leadership stability predicts quality trajectory more reliably than almost any other single factor. The improvement from Requires Improvement is the most positive signal in this report, because it means the leadership team identified and fixed problems rather than allowing them to persist. What you cannot know from the published text is whether the registered manager is a permanent, embedded presence or recently appointed, and whether the culture supports staff to speak up when something is wrong. Both matter enormously for your parent's day-to-day experience. Communication with families (cited in 11.5% of positive reviews) is also not described in the report.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review identifies bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff feel safe raising concerns without fear of blame, as a leading indicator of high-quality dementia care. Homes where staff can speak up tend to catch problems earlier and respond more effectively to individual needs.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what was the main reason for the previous Requires Improvement rating, what specifically changed, and how long has she been in post? Then ask a frontline carer, separately and informally if possible, whether they feel comfortable raising a concern about a resident's care. The gap between those two answers will tell you a great deal about the culture."}

  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 caters to adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia or physical disabilities. This broad expertise means they're equipped to support residents through changing needs.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the home's emphasis on personal connections and emotional support provides essential continuity. The strong bonds that develop between residents and carers can be particularly meaningful for those navigating memory challenges. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.