Hazelwood Care Home
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 beds50
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Dementia
- Last inspected2019-08-13
- Activities programmeThe building itself helps create a dignified environment — modern, clean spaces with en-suite rooms that residents can personalise with their own belongings. There's a sensory room, a cinema for film afternoons, and gardens to enjoy when the weather's nice. Food gets consistent praise too, with good variety and the option to arrange private dining for special family occasions.
- 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
Families talk about how well their relatives settle in, even those who were anxious about leaving home. There's a real effort to help people feel at ease — staff learn residents' preferences and habits, and there's always something happening to keep spirits up. The atmosphere stays cheerful without feeling forced, and relatives say they're made to feel welcome whenever they visit.
Based on 39 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 2019-08-13 · Report published 2019-08-13 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for safety at Hazelwood Care Home. The home is registered to provide nursing care for up to 50 people, including those living with dementia. No specific safety incidents, staffing ratios, medicines management details, or infection control observations are included in the available published report text. The previous rating was Requires Improvement, so a move to Good represents a real change, though the published text does not explain what specifically changed. The absence of detail means the Good rating must be taken at face value without independent verification of the underlying evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the foundation of every other aspect of care. Our review data shows that families frequently mention staff attentiveness as a concern when things go wrong, and the Good Practice evidence base from 61 studies flags night staffing as the period where safety most commonly slips in care homes. The inspection confirmed a Good rating but did not record night staffing numbers, agency staff usage, or how incidents and falls are logged and acted on. These are exactly the gaps you need to fill yourself on a visit. A home that has recently moved up from Requires Improvement can be on a genuinely positive trajectory, but it is worth asking what specifically changed and whether those changes are embedded in day-to-day practice.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance and inconsistent night cover are among the most common contributors to safety failures in care homes. A home with low agency use and stable night teams carries meaningfully lower risk for your parent.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and specifically ask how many carers and nurses are on duty overnight for the 50 residents."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for effectiveness at Hazelwood Care Home. This domain covers training, care plan quality, healthcare access including GP involvement, and how well the home meets the specific needs of people with dementia. No specific detail about dementia training content, care plan reviews, GP visiting frequency, or how the home manages complex nursing needs is available in the published report text. The home holds a nursing registration, meaning it is expected to provide a higher level of clinical oversight than a residential-only home. What the inspection found to support the Good rating in this domain is not described in the text available for this analysis.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a parent with dementia, effectiveness is about whether the people caring for them actually understand the condition and can respond well when behaviour changes or health deteriorates. Our Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents, ones that should be reviewed regularly and updated when your parent's needs change, not filed away after admission. Food quality is also a marker of genuine care: 20.9% of positive family reviews mention food and mealtimes specifically. The inspection did not provide detail on any of these areas, so you will need to ask about them directly. A Good rating for effectiveness in a nursing home registered for dementia care is a positive signal, but the specifics matter enormously.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that regular, structured dementia training (including non-verbal communication techniques) significantly improves care quality and reduces distress in residents. Ask what dementia training staff completed in the past 12 months and who delivered it.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how often is your parent's care plan reviewed, who is involved in that review, and can you as a family member attend? Then ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if necessary) to judge whether it reflects a real person or reads like a standard template."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for caring at Hazelwood Care Home. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect for privacy, and whether residents retain as much independence as possible. No inspector observations about how staff interact with residents, whether residents are addressed by their preferred names, or whether care is delivered at a patient pace are available in the published report text. Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in our family review data, accounting for 57.3% of positive reviews. Without specific observations or testimony, the Good rating here cannot be examined in more depth.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth and compassion are what families mention most when they describe a good care home, and they are also the hardest things to assess from a report. In our data, 57.3% of positive family reviews specifically name warm, friendly staff interactions, and 55.2% mention genuine compassion and dignity. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that for people with advanced dementia, non-verbal communication, tone of voice, unhurried touch, and consistent faces matter as much as what staff say. You cannot fully assess this from an inspection rating alone. The single most reliable test is to spend an unannounced hour in the communal areas watching how staff move through the space and respond to residents who need help.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that person-led care requires staff to know each resident as an individual, including their life history, preferred name, and communication style. Homes where this knowledge is embedded in daily practice consistently show lower rates of agitation and distress.","watch_out":"On your visit, sit in a communal area for at least 20 minutes without the manager present. Watch whether staff initiate conversation with residents unprompted, whether they crouch to eye level when speaking to someone seated, and whether any resident appears to be waiting for help without anyone noticing."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for responsiveness at Hazelwood Care Home. This domain covers activities, how well the home responds to individual preferences, and end-of-life care planning. No specific information about the activities programme, whether activities are tailored to individual residents including those with advanced dementia, or how end-of-life wishes are recorded and honoured is available in the published report text. The home is registered for dementia care, so the expectation is that activities are adapted to a range of cognitive and physical abilities, including one-to-one engagement for those who cannot participate in groups.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement matter more than most families initially expect. Our review data shows that resident happiness accounts for 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities feature in 21.4%. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks, such as folding laundry or simple cooking, can provide continuity and purpose for people with dementia who have lost the ability to follow structured group activities. A home that only runs group sessions in the lounge is not meeting the needs of everyone. The inspection did not provide detail on whether Hazelwood offers one-to-one engagement or how it adapts activities for different stages of dementia.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that individual, tailored activities based on a person's life history and remaining abilities reduce agitation and improve wellbeing significantly more than standard group activity programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last week's actual activities record, not the planned timetable. Then ask specifically: for a resident who cannot join group sessions because of advanced dementia, what would a typical Tuesday afternoon look like for them, and who would be with them?"}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for leadership and governance at Hazelwood Care Home. Ms Allison June Petican is the registered manager and Mr Christopher David Ridgard is the nominated individual. The home is operated by Smartmove Homes Limited. Having a named registered manager is a basic but important governance requirement. The previous overall rating was Requires Improvement, and the move to Good across all domains suggests that leadership has driven meaningful improvement. No specific detail about the manager's tenure, how staff are supported, how the home learns from incidents, or how governance processes operate is available in the published report text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that homes with a consistent, visible manager who empowers staff to speak up tend to sustain quality better than those where management changes frequently. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is a genuinely positive sign, but it raises a practical question: how long has the current manager been in post, and were they the driver of the improvement or someone who arrived after the hard work was done? Our family review data shows that communication with families accounts for 11.5% of positive reviews, and this is directly shaped by how the manager sets the tone for openness and transparency.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff feel safe to raise concerns and suggest improvements, is a reliable marker of a well-led home. Ask staff directly whether they feel comfortable speaking up.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post at Hazelwood, and what specific changes did you make to move the home from Requires Improvement to Good? If the manager struggles to give concrete examples, or if the answer describes changes that happened before they arrived, that is worth noting."}
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 Hazelwood specialises in dementia care for people over 65, with structured activities designed to keep residents engaged — music sessions, crafts, discussion groups, and visits from external volunteers.. Gaps or open questions remain on The dementia care here includes practical touches that make a difference — a sensory room for calmer moments, activities pitched at the right level to maintain interest without frustration, and staff who understand how to respond when behaviour becomes difficult. Families mention seeing genuine improvements in mood and engagement after their relatives settle in. — 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
Hazelwood Care Home has improved from Requires Improvement to Good across all five domains, which is a meaningful step forward. However, the published inspection report contains very limited specific detail, so most scores sit in the mid-range reflecting a positive but unverified picture.
Homes in South East typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
Families talk about how well their relatives settle in, even those who were anxious about leaving home. There's a real effort to help people feel at ease — staff learn residents' preferences and habits, and there's always something happening to keep spirits up. The atmosphere stays cheerful without feeling forced, and relatives say they're made to feel welcome whenever they visit.
What inspectors have recorded
The manager is hands-on and visible day-to-day, which seems to set the tone for the whole team. Staff stick around and build real relationships with residents, keeping that same warm approach even when dealing with challenging behaviour. When health issues come up, they coordinate well with doctors and visiting professionals, taking pressure off families trying to juggle multiple appointments.
How it sits against good practice
It's the kind of place where small details add up to something bigger — where caring for someone with dementia feels less overwhelming because you're not doing it alone.
Worth a visit
Hazelwood Care Home, a 50-bed nursing home in Longfield specialising in dementia care for older adults, was assessed in March 2025 and rated Good across all five inspection domains: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-led. This is a genuine and meaningful improvement from its previous rating of Requires Improvement, and having a named registered manager in post alongside a nominated individual is a positive governance signal. The home is run by Smartmove Homes Limited. The main limitation of this report is that the published inspection text contains very little specific detail beyond the headline ratings. There are no recorded observations from inspectors, no quotes from residents or relatives, and no concrete examples of what good care looks like day-to-day at Hazelwood. A Good rating is encouraging, but it tells you what the inspector concluded rather than what your parent would actually experience. Before making a decision, visit the home at a quiet time (mid-morning on a weekday is often revealing), ask the manager to show you last week's actual staffing rota including nights, and ask specifically what a typical day looks like for a resident with dementia who cannot join group activities.
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In Their Own Words
How Hazelwood Care Home describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Where dementia care feels genuinely personal and thoughtful
Dedicated nursing home Support in Longfield
When someone you love needs dementia care, you want them somewhere that sees them as an individual, not just another resident. Hazelwood Care Home in Longfield creates that kind of environment — where staff take time to know residents properly and families feel genuinely welcomed as part of daily life. The care here goes beyond the basics, with thought given to keeping people engaged and comfortable.
Who they care for
Hazelwood specialises in dementia care for people over 65, with structured activities designed to keep residents engaged — music sessions, crafts, discussion groups, and visits from external volunteers.
The dementia care here includes practical touches that make a difference — a sensory room for calmer moments, activities pitched at the right level to maintain interest without frustration, and staff who understand how to respond when behaviour becomes difficult. Families mention seeing genuine improvements in mood and engagement after their relatives settle in.
Management & ethos
The manager is hands-on and visible day-to-day, which seems to set the tone for the whole team. Staff stick around and build real relationships with residents, keeping that same warm approach even when dealing with challenging behaviour. When health issues come up, they coordinate well with doctors and visiting professionals, taking pressure off families trying to juggle multiple appointments.
The home & environment
The building itself helps create a dignified environment — modern, clean spaces with en-suite rooms that residents can personalise with their own belongings. There's a sensory room, a cinema for film afternoons, and gardens to enjoy when the weather's nice. Food gets consistent praise too, with good variety and the option to arrange private dining for special family occasions.
“It's the kind of place where small details add up to something bigger — where caring for someone with dementia feels less overwhelming because you're not doing it alone.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
