Highgrove Care Home

What families say

Based on 9 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness72
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2020-02-08 · Report published 2020-02-08 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The January 2026 inspection rated the Safe domain as Good. This is a positive finding for a home that previously held a Requires Improvement rating. The published report does not include specific detail about staffing ratios, medicines management practices, night cover arrangements, or how the home records and learns from falls and incidents. The home is registered to provide nursing care, which means a registered nurse must be on duty at all times, but the report does not confirm shift-by-shift arrangements.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For a 67-bed nursing home specialising in dementia care, safety at night is one of the most important questions you can ask. Good Practice research from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review identifies night staffing as a key point where safety can slip, particularly in homes with high occupancy. The previous Requires Improvement rating means the home has had documented concerns in the past, and a Good rating now is encouraging, but you should verify the improvement is embedded rather than recent. Ask the manager specifically about night staffing numbers and how medicines are checked at the handover between shifts.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies consistent, familiar staffing as a critical safety factor for people living with dementia. Homes with high agency use or frequent staff changes report higher rates of missed care and avoidable incidents.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the planned template. Count how many night shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and ask whether agency staff receive a home-specific induction before working on the dementia unit."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Effective domain as Good. Dementia is a listed specialism, which means the home is expected to demonstrate specific knowledge and skill in supporting people living with dementia. The published text does not include information about the content or frequency of dementia training, how care plans are structured, how often they are reviewed, or how the home manages health conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, or swallowing difficulties alongside dementia. GP access arrangements are not described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"The Good Practice research is clear that care plans function as living documents rather than forms filed at admission. When a plan is regularly updated to reflect changes in your parent's preferences, health, and behaviour, it leads to measurably better outcomes. The Effective domain being rated Good is a positive signal, but the detail matters. Dementia care training varies enormously between homes: some staff complete a short online module while others hold formal qualifications. Asking specifically what training the unit's carers and nurses have completed, and when, will help you judge whether "dementia specialism" is meaningful in practice.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that regular, specialist dementia training for all staff, not just senior carers, is strongly associated with reduced use of as-needed sedative medication and better recognition of pain in people who cannot communicate verbally.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training the carers on the unit have completed in the past 12 months, whether it was face-to-face or online, and how the home checks that learning has changed practice. Ask to see a blank care plan template so you can judge whether it captures the things your parent needs, including preferred name, food preferences, and what helps them feel calm."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether residents are supported to maintain their independence. Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in our family review data, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews across 5,409 UK care homes. The published inspection text does not include specific observations of staff interactions, descriptions of how staff respond to residents in distress, or testimony from residents or relatives about how care feels in practice.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating in Caring is the most directly reassuring finding for most families, because it is the hardest thing to fake in front of an inspector. However, the absence of specific observations in the published text means you cannot yet picture what daily life looks like for your mum or dad. Staff warmth and dignity are best judged on an unannounced visit rather than a booked tour. Our review data shows that families who mention staff warmth by name in positive reviews almost always describe something specific, a carer who remembered a resident's favourite programme, or who sat down rather than standing during a conversation. Look for those details when you visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies non-verbal communication as equally important as verbal communication for people living with advanced dementia. Staff who adjust pace, use touch appropriately, and make eye contact at the resident's level produce measurably lower levels of distress behaviour.","watch_out":"On your visit, walk a corridor and observe how staff greet residents they pass. Are interactions unhurried? Do staff use the resident's preferred name? Ask a carer what your parent's preferred name would be recorded as and how they would know it on their first shift."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good. This domain covers whether activities are meaningful and tailored to the individual, whether residents can maintain their routines and preferences, and whether end-of-life wishes are recorded and respected. The home supports people living with dementia and people with mental health conditions, both of whom may have difficulty expressing preferences verbally. The published report does not describe the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for residents who cannot join groups, or how the home records and acts on residents' life histories.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness appears in 27.1% of the positive family reviews in our data, and activities are closely tied to that. The Good Practice research is particularly strong on this point: group activities alone are not sufficient for people living with dementia, especially those in the later stages. Homes that provide good one-to-one engagement, including simple household tasks, sensory activities, or reminiscence with familiar objects, see lower rates of distress and better quality of life. A Good rating here is positive, but ask specifically what happens for your parent on a day when the group activity is not suitable for them.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-focused individual activities, such as folding, sorting, and simple gardening, produce significant reductions in agitation and low mood in people living with moderate to advanced dementia, even when group activities are no longer accessible.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity records for a resident with a similar level of need to your parent, redacted for privacy, over the past two weeks. Check whether there are entries on days when no group activity was scheduled, and ask who delivers one-to-one engagement and how much time per resident per day is allocated to it."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good, and the overall rating has improved from Requires Improvement to Good. The registered manager is named as Mrs Angela Moore, and the nominated individual is Ms Victoria Craddock. The home is run by Crown Care IV Limited. Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in care homes, and the presence of a named, registered manager is a positive structural indicator. The published report does not describe how the manager is visible on the floor, how staff are supported to raise concerns, or what governance systems are in place.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality is the third-highest weighted theme in our family review data, appearing in 23.4% of positive reviews. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is not routine: it requires sustained effort from the leadership team and is a meaningful signal of positive direction. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability predicts quality over time. The key question now is whether the improvements are embedded or whether they reflect a period of intense effort ahead of the inspection. Ask how long the current manager has been in post and what changes have been made since the previous rating.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that care homes where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear, and where managers are regularly visible on the floor rather than office-based, consistently outperform comparators on safety and care quality metrics over time.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long she has been in post at Highgrove, what the biggest change she made after the previous Requires Improvement rating was, and how staff can raise a concern about a resident's care without going through her directly. The answer to that last question tells 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 team at Highgrove cares for adults across different age groups, with particular experience supporting people with dementia and mental health conditions. They welcome both younger adults under 65 and older residents who need specialist care.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the home provides dedicated support tailored to individual needs. The team understands the unique challenges dementia brings and works to create a supportive environment. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.