Highfield Manor Care Home

What families say

People notice how residents actually form friendships here — both with each other and with the staff who look after them. There's a sense of community that helps everyone feel more settled. Families mention being able to drop by anytime and finding everything just as it should be.

Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness55
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare55
• Management & leadership60
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-12-04 · Report published 2019-12-04 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Safe at its August 2020 inspection. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. No specific detail about staffing ratios, night cover, agency use, or incident learning is recorded in the published summary. The rating indicates that inspectors found no significant concerns in these areas at the time of inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating is reassuring, but it tells you the minimum rather than the full picture. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is where safety most often slips in care homes, and that heavy reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency your parent with dementia needs. Neither of these is addressed specifically in the available report, so you will need to ask directly. Cleanliness accounts for 24.3% of positive themes in our family review data, and families frequently mention it as an immediate signal on a first visit, so use your eyes when you tour the home.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that care homes with consistent permanent staffing, particularly at night, show significantly better safety outcomes for people with dementia compared to those with high agency turnover.","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 staff, and ask specifically how many carers are on duty overnight for the 38 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Effective at the August 2020 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and how well the home supports people's physical and mental health needs. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies staff have relevant training, but no detail about training content, completion rates, GP access frequency, or care plan review processes is available in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Dementia-specific training is one of the 12 themes flagged in our Good Practice evidence base as making a measurable difference to outcomes. A home can list dementia as a specialism without all staff having completed meaningful training, so it is worth probing this directly. Food quality accounts for 20.9% of what families mention positively in our review data, and it is one of the clearest everyday signals of whether a home is genuinely caring or just meeting a minimum standard. The inspection findings do not give us detail here, so a lunchtime visit would tell you more than any report.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that care plans used as living documents, updated with family input and reviewed at least monthly, are strongly associated with better quality of life for people with dementia, compared to care plans that are completed at admission and rarely revisited.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised if needed) and ask when it was last updated and whether a family member was involved in that review. Then ask what dementia-specific training staff have completed and when they last did a refresher."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Caring at the August 2020 inspection. This domain is the closest official measure of whether staff are genuinely kind and whether your parent would be treated with dignity and respect. No specific inspector observations, resident quotes, or staff interaction examples are included in the published summary. The Good rating indicates inspectors found the standard satisfactory, but the evidence behind that conclusion is not available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassionate treatment accounts for 55.2%. These are not abstract values; they show up in observable behaviours such as whether a carer knocks before entering a room, uses your parent's preferred name, or sits at eye level rather than standing over them. None of these specifics are recorded in this inspection, so you need to observe them yourself. Walk the corridors at a quiet time, not just during a formal tour, and watch how staff interact with people when they think no one official is watching.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including tone, pace, eye contact, and physical positioning, matters as much as spoken words for people with dementia, particularly those with limited verbal communication. Homes where staff demonstrate this consistently show measurably lower rates of distressed behaviour.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch whether staff address your parent's future neighbours by name or by bed number, whether they crouch or sit when speaking to someone who is seated, and whether interactions feel unhurried. These small signals are more reliable than anything written in a brochure."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Responsive at the August 2020 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, complaint handling, and end-of-life care planning. The home's specialism in dementia suggests an expectation of tailored, individual support. No specific activities, engagement examples, complaint outcomes, or end-of-life planning details are described in the available report text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of what families celebrate in our review data, and resident happiness accounts for 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with dementia, particularly those in more advanced stages who cannot follow group interactions. One-to-one engagement, including everyday tasks such as folding laundry, looking through photographs, or tending plants, produces better wellbeing outcomes. The inspection gives no detail on whether this home provides this kind of individual engagement, so ask specifically what happens for a resident who cannot join a group.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday-task approaches to individual engagement significantly reduce distressed behaviour and improve mood in people with moderate to advanced dementia, compared to group-only activity programmes.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator (or whoever leads engagement) to describe what would happen on a typical Tuesday afternoon for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot follow group activities. A specific, confident answer suggests genuine individual engagement. A vague answer suggests group activities are the default and little else happens."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home received a Good rating for Well-led at the August 2020 inspection. A registered manager, Miss Donna Marie O'Hanlon, and a nominated individual, Ms Mandy Dhaliwal, are recorded. This indicates a defined and accountable leadership structure. No detail about the manager's tenure, how staff are supported to raise concerns, governance processes, or how the home responds to complaints and incidents is available in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality accounts for 23.4% of family satisfaction themes in our review data, and communication with families accounts for 11.5%. The Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of whether a home's quality improves or declines over time. A manager who has been in post for several years and who staff know by first name is a very different environment from one where leadership has turned over frequently. This inspection does not tell us how long the current manager has been in post, so ask directly. Also ask how the home communicates with families when something goes wrong, not just when things are going well.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University evidence review found that homes where staff feel safe to raise concerns and where managers are regularly visible on the floor, rather than office-based, have significantly better outcomes across all care domains compared to homes with more distant leadership cultures.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post, and ask the same question to a carer you meet separately during your visit. If the answers differ, or if staff seem uncertain, that is worth noting. Also ask how the home would contact you if your parent had a fall or a health change overnight."}

  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 Highfield Manor cares for adults over 65 and under 65, including those with physical disabilities. The home specialises in dementia care.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff here know how to support people through the behavioral changes that come with dementia. Families describe seeing genuine compassion during those harder moments, with staff taking time to provide emotional support rather than rushing through care tasks. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.