Hamble Heights Care Home

What families say

Visitors today often mention feeling welcomed from their first arrival. Staff greet families warmly, and the communal areas feel friendly and well-maintained. The activities coordinator runs themed events and social programmes, with staff helping residents participate at their own level.

Based on 36 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare60
• Management & leadership45
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-10-31 · Report published 2023-10-31 · Inspected 6 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the September 2024 inspection. This indicates that inspectors were broadly satisfied with safety arrangements, including staffing levels, medicines management, and infection control. No specific observations, staff ratios, or incident data are included in the published summary. The previous inspection in October 2023 did not produce domain-level ratings, so a direct trend comparison at domain level is not possible. The overall rating declined from Good to Requires Improvement, driven by the Well-led domain rather than any recorded safety failure.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Safety is reassuring as a baseline, but the published findings do not tell you how many staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm, what the home's falls rate looks like, or how much it relies on agency staff. Our review data from 3,602 positive family reviews shows that staff attentiveness, picking up on a parent's needs before they escalate, is one of the clearest signals families use to judge whether a home is truly safe. The Good Practice evidence base from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid review of 61 studies highlights that night staffing levels and agency reliance are the two areas where safety most commonly slips, even in homes rated Good. You cannot assess either from the published report alone.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies night staffing ratios and agency staff consistency as the leading predictors of safety incidents in care homes, even where the overall safety rating is Good. Homes with high agency use often show greater variation in how safely protocols are followed.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff, not agency, are on the dementia unit on a typical night shift, and can you show me the actual rota for last week?"}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the September 2024 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and hydration. No specific examples of care plan quality, GP access arrangements, dementia training content, or food provision are included in the published summary. The rating suggests inspectors found these areas broadly satisfactory but the absence of detail means the rating cannot be contextualised beyond that. Hamble Heights is registered to provide nursing care as well as personal care, which means clinical oversight should be more embedded than in a residential-only home.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating means inspectors did not find significant gaps in training, care planning, or healthcare, but it does not tell you whether your parent's care plan would capture what they actually need as a person, not just as a clinical case. Food quality is one of the themes that comes up in 20.9% of positive family reviews, and families consistently describe mealtimes as a window into whether a home genuinely cares about the people living there. The Good Practice review found that care plans which are reviewed regularly and shaped with family input produce measurably better outcomes for people with dementia. Ask specifically about review frequency and whether you would be included.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base from 61 studies found that care plans treated as living documents, updated with family input and reviewed at least monthly, are associated with better personalised care and fewer avoidable hospital admissions for people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see a blank care plan template and ask the manager: how often are care plans formally reviewed, and how would you involve us as a family in shaping and updating my parent's plan?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the September 2024 inspection. This domain covers warmth of staff interactions, dignity, respect, privacy, and support for independence. No direct inspector observations of staff behaviour, no resident or relative quotes, and no specific examples of dignity practice are included in the published summary. The rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the standard of caring at the time of the visit. Staff warmth is the theme families care about most, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews in our data set.","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. A Good Caring rating suggests inspectors found satisfactory standards, but the published findings do not tell you whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they move at an unhurried pace, or how they respond when someone with dementia becomes frightened or confused. The Good Practice review found that non-verbal communication, tone, posture, and eye contact, matters as much as words for people with advanced dementia, and that person-led care depends on staff genuinely knowing the individual. These qualities are best assessed in person, not from a report.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies non-verbal communication as a core skill for dementia care, noting that staff who are trained to read and respond to non-verbal cues produce significantly lower rates of distress in people who can no longer communicate verbally.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens in a corridor or common area when a member of staff passes a resident. Do they make eye contact, use the resident's name, and pause, even briefly? Or do they walk past without acknowledgement?"}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the September 2024 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, responsiveness to changing needs, and end-of-life planning. No activity programme detail, no examples of individual tailoring, and no information about end-of-life planning are included in the published summary. The home is registered for dementia care, which means inspectors would expect to see evidence of dementia-appropriate activity provision. The Good rating indicates broad satisfaction at the time of inspection but provides no basis for assessing the quality or variety of daily life.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews and resident happiness in 27.1%, making daily life and engagement the third most important cluster of themes after staff warmth and compassion. A Good Responsive rating tells you inspectors did not find major failures, but it does not tell you whether your parent would have access to one-to-one engagement if they cannot join a group, or whether the activity programme would feel meaningful to them specifically. The Good Practice review found that Montessori-based and household-task approaches, not just organised group sessions, are the most effective for people with moderate to advanced dementia. Ask the home how they keep people engaged across the whole day, not just during scheduled activities.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies tailored one-to-one activity, including everyday household tasks and sensory engagement, as significantly more effective for people with advanced dementia than group-only programmes.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: if my parent is having a difficult day and cannot join a group session, what would a member of staff do with them one-to-one, and can you give me a recent example?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the September 2024 inspection. This is the reason the overall rating declined from Good. A registered manager, Mrs Rachel Louise Yoxall, is named on the registration, and Mr Martin Peter Madden is the nominated individual for the provider, Welford Healthcare South Ltd. No specific detail about the leadership concerns, such as governance failures, audit gaps, staff culture issues, or oversight weaknesses, is included in the published summary. The previous inspection in October 2023 did not assign domain ratings, so the direction of travel since that visit is unclear.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement rating in Well-led is the most important single finding in this report and should be the focus of your visit. Our review data shows that communication with families appears in 11.5% of positive reviews, but the Good Practice evidence base goes further: it identifies leadership stability as the strongest single predictor of whether care quality holds up or deteriorates over time. Homes with leadership concerns can still deliver warm, day-to-day care, but governance weaknesses tend to show up in how incidents are handled, how complaints are responded to, and whether staffing gaps are managed proactively. You need to know what specifically was wrong, what has changed, and whether the registered manager is still in post.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that homes with stable, visible management who actively empower staff to raise concerns show significantly better outcomes for residents with dementia, particularly in responding to behavioural and psychological symptoms.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what were the specific concerns the inspection identified in September 2024, what action has been taken since, and can I see the improvement plan that was submitted to the regulator in response?"}

  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 cares for adults both over and under 65, including younger adults with dementia. They also offer short-term recovery stays after surgery.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff include residents with dementia in the home's activities and provide individual support based on each person's needs, including younger adults living with the condition. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.