Figbury Lodge
At a Glance
The information you need to decide whether this home warrants a closer look.
Nursing homes
Staff warmth score
of reviewers answered yes
Good to know
- Registered beds80
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Caring for adults under 65 yrs, Dementia
- Last inspected2021-05-18
- Activities programmeThe home maintains its physical spaces well, with bright rooms and gardens that residents can enjoy. Families appreciate the cleanliness throughout the building and note that meals seem to satisfy residents.
- Visit Website
The Evidence
What the review data, the inspection reports, and the dementia-care evidence base tell us about this home.
What families say
Visitors often find the staff friendly and approachable when they visit. The building itself feels clean and bright, though some describe the atmosphere as rather institutional despite the modern facilities and pleasant staff manner.
Based on 40 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
- Healthcare70
- Management & leadership75
- Resident happiness68
What inspectors found
Inspected 2021-05-18 · Report published 2021-05-18 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the May 2025 inspection. This is an improvement from the previous inspection, where overall performance fell short of expected standards. No specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls monitoring, or infection control is included in the available published text. The improvement in this domain suggests that concerns identified previously have been addressed, but the inspection text does not describe what those concerns were or how they were resolved.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Safety is reassuring after a previous Requires Improvement judgement, but our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety in care homes is most at risk at night and during periods of rapid occupancy growth. With 80 beds, Figbury Lodge is a large home, and night staffing ratios matter significantly for your parent's security. The published report does not record how many staff are on duty overnight, so this is something you will need to ask directly. In our review data, families who later raised safety concerns often said they wished they had asked about agency staff usage before moving their parent in.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of safety incidents, because consistent staff know residents' baseline behaviour and are more likely to notice early signs of deterioration.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the template rota. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency staff, and ask specifically how many carers are on duty overnight on the dementia unit."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the May 2025 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, nutrition and hydration, and access to healthcare professionals including GPs. No specific detail is available in the published text about the content of dementia training, how often care plans are reviewed, or how the home manages GP access for residents. The Good rating implies inspectors found no significant concerns in these areas.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Dementia is listed as a specialism at Figbury Lodge, which means inspectors will have looked at whether staff have appropriate knowledge to support your parent as their condition changes. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents, meaning they should be updated as your parent's needs shift rather than completed on admission and filed away. The published report does not confirm how frequently reviews happen or whether families are included, so ask about this directly. Food quality is also assessed within this domain, and 20.9% of positive family reviews in our data mention food as a key reason for satisfaction.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that regular, meaningful involvement of families in care plan reviews is associated with better outcomes for people with dementia, including lower rates of unplanned hospital admissions.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager how often your parent's care plan would be formally reviewed, and whether you would be invited to attend or contribute. Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised) to judge whether it reflects the individual person or reads as a standard template."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the May 2025 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether residents are supported to maintain independence. No specific inspector observations about staff interactions, use of preferred names, or response to distress are included in the available published text. A Good rating suggests inspectors did not find evidence of poor practice in this area, but the absence of specific observations means the evidence is general rather than detailed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews by name. The signals to look for on a visit are specific: does a carer use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, do staff pause what they are doing when your parent approaches, and is the pace of interaction unhurried? These are things the inspection text does not confirm either way, so your own visit is the most important source of evidence. Compassion and dignity together appear in 55.2% of positive family reviews, making this the most important domain to observe directly rather than rely on published ratings alone.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication for people living with dementia. Staff who crouch to eye level, make calm eye contact, and avoid sudden movements significantly reduce distress episodes.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens in a corridor or communal space when your parent-equivalent (an existing resident) approaches a staff member. Does the staff member stop, make eye contact, and speak calmly? Or do they keep moving and call over their shoulder? This single interaction tells you more than any rating."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the May 2025 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, and end-of-life planning. No specific activities are named in the published text, and there is no detail about one-to-one provision for residents with advanced dementia or about how the home tailors activities to individual histories and interests. A Good rating suggests inspectors found no significant shortfalls, but the evidence base in the published report is very limited.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, but the type of activity matters as much as whether activities happen at all. Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with advanced dementia, who benefit most from one-to-one, purpose-led engagement, such as folding laundry, handling familiar objects, or looking at photographs from their past. The published report does not confirm whether Figbury Lodge provides this kind of individual engagement. Ask directly what would happen on a Tuesday morning for your parent if they could not join a group session.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and occupation-based individual activities, including everyday household tasks, significantly reduce agitation and improve wellbeing in people with moderate to severe dementia, more so than structured group programmes.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule for last week, not a sample or planned schedule. Then ask what one-to-one activity provision exists for residents who cannot engage in groups, and who specifically delivers it and how often."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the May 2025 inspection. A named registered manager, Mrs Kim Elizabeth Harris, is confirmed in post, alongside a nominated individual, Mr Liam Francis Scanlon. The home is operated by Shaw Healthcare (Group) Limited. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating to Good across all five domains is the strongest available evidence of effective leadership, as it suggests governance systems identified problems and produced genuine change. No further detail about management culture, staff empowerment, or quality monitoring processes is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management leadership accounts for 23.4% of what drives positive family reviews in our data, and our Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality over time. The fact that the same registered manager appears to have overseen the improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is a positive signal. However, with 80 beds and a dementia specialism, the scale of this home means you should ask how visible the manager is on the floor day to day, not just in the office. Ask how long Mrs Harris has been in post, and whether there have been significant changes to the senior care team in the past 12 months.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of consequences have significantly lower rates of safeguarding incidents. A bottom-up empowerment culture, where carers speak up about risk, is a more reliable quality indicator than governance paperwork alone.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what was the main reason for the previous Requires Improvement rating, and what specific changes did the home make? A manager who can answer this clearly and without defensiveness is demonstrating the kind of accountability that predicts continued quality."}
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 states it cares for adults over and under 65, including those living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on Despite listing dementia as a specialism, the home has reportedly turned away residents with moderate dementia, citing behavioural concerns. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.
The DCC Verdict
Our editorial view, built from the three lenses: what families tell us, what inspectors record, and how the home sits against good dementia-care practice.
DCC Family Score
Figbury Lodge scores 74 out of 100. The home has moved from Requires Improvement to a Good rating across all five domains, which is a meaningful positive step, but the published inspection report contains very limited specific detail, so many scores reflect the rating itself rather than direct observations or testimony.
Homes in South West typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
Visitors often find the staff friendly and approachable when they visit. The building itself feels clean and bright, though some describe the atmosphere as rather institutional despite the modern facilities and pleasant staff manner.
What inspectors have recorded
Several families have reported troubling incidents with pain medication being withheld and difficulties accessing the home for viewings. While some staff clearly provide compassionate care, particularly during end-of-life support, others have been described as dismissive when residents need help with personal care.
How it sits against good practice
Given the serious medication and care concerns raised by families, visiting Figbury Lodge and asking detailed questions about their care practices would be essential.
Worth a visit
Figbury Lodge, a 80-bed nursing home on Mitchell Road in Poole, was rated Good across all five inspection domains at its most recent assessment in May 2025. This is a notable improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating, and represents the most important signal in the published findings: the home identified what was going wrong and fixed it. The home is registered for dementia care, nursing care, and for both older and younger adults, and has a named registered manager in post. The main limitation of this report is that the published text contains very little specific detail. No inspector observations, resident quotes, or relative testimony are included in the available findings, which means it is not possible to verify the quality of day-to-day care from the published source alone. Before deciding, visit in person and ask to see last week's actual staffing rota (counting permanent versus agency names, especially on night shifts), speak to the registered manager about how the home moved from Requires Improvement to Good, and observe whether staff use your parent's preferred name and move without hurry during your visit.
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In Their Own Words
How Figbury Lodge describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Modern Poole care home with concerning medication practices
Figbury Lodge – Your Trusted nursing home
Figbury Lodge in Poole offers residential care in a modern, purpose-built setting with pleasant gardens. The home specialises in supporting older adults and those living with dementia, though families have raised serious concerns about medication management and care practices that warrant careful consideration.
Who they care for
The home states it cares for adults over and under 65, including those living with dementia.
Despite listing dementia as a specialism, the home has reportedly turned away residents with moderate dementia, citing behavioural concerns.
Management & ethos
Several families have reported troubling incidents with pain medication being withheld and difficulties accessing the home for viewings. While some staff clearly provide compassionate care, particularly during end-of-life support, others have been described as dismissive when residents need help with personal care.
The home & environment
The home maintains its physical spaces well, with bright rooms and gardens that residents can enjoy. Families appreciate the cleanliness throughout the building and note that meals seem to satisfy residents.
“Given the serious medication and care concerns raised by families, visiting Figbury Lodge and asking detailed questions about their care practices would be essential.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
