Hillcroft Care Home

What families say

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

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-11-24 · Report published 2023-11-24 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Hillcroft was rated Good for safety at its November 2023 inspection. The home is registered to provide personal care rather than nursing care for up to 35 people, including those with dementia. Beyond the rating itself, the published inspection text does not include specific detail about staffing levels, medicines management, falls monitoring, or infection control practices. No concerns were raised in the safe domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating means inspectors did not identify significant concerns during their visit, and that is a meaningful baseline. However, Good Practice research consistently highlights that safety can vary most after 8pm, when staffing is thinnest, and that heavy reliance on agency staff can undermine the consistency that people with dementia rely on. Our family review data shows that 14% of positive reviews specifically mention staff attentiveness as a safety signal. Because the published report contains no detail on night staffing, agency use, or falls logging, you will need to gather this information directly from the home before you can make a confident judgement.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that night-time staffing ratios are where safety most commonly slips in residential care, and that learning from incidents (rather than simply recording them) is one of the clearest markers distinguishing genuinely safe homes from those that are merely compliant on paper.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past week, including overnight shifts. Count how many of those shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and ask what the minimum number of staff on duty is overnight for the 35 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Hillcroft was rated Good for effectiveness at its November 2023 inspection. The home holds a dementia specialism registration, indicating it is set up to support people with cognitive needs alongside general residential care for adults over and under 65. The published inspection text does not include specific evidence about care plan quality, dementia training content, GP access arrangements, or food provision. No concerns were raised in this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness covers some of the things families worry about most: whether staff truly understand dementia, whether your parent's care plan is a living document reflecting who they are rather than a form filed away in a drawer, and whether health needs are caught early. Food quality is also assessed here, and our review data shows it appears in 20.9% of positive family reviews, often as a proxy for how much the home genuinely cares. The dementia specialism registration is encouraging, but ask specifically what that training looks like in practice, because registration alone does not tell you whether staff know how to respond when your mum becomes distressed at night.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that dementia training which goes beyond basic awareness, covering non-verbal communication, behavioural understanding, and person-centred approaches, is associated with measurably better outcomes for residents and lower rates of distress-related incidents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training all staff (including night staff and kitchen staff) have completed in the past 12 months, and whether it covers responding to distress specifically. Then ask to see a sample care plan, with personal details removed, to judge whether it reflects individual history and preferences or reads as a generic template."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Hillcroft was rated Good for caring at its November 2023 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether residents are treated as individuals. The published inspection text does not include direct observations of staff interactions, quotes from residents or relatives about how they are treated, or specific examples of dignity being upheld. No concerns were raised in the caring domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important theme in our family review data, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. These are the things families notice and remember. A Good rating for caring means inspectors were satisfied, but the absence of specific detail in the published report means you cannot yet know whether staff here are warm and unhurried or merely adequate. The clearest way to test this yourself is to arrive unannounced or at a quieter time of day and watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas, particularly whether they slow down, make eye contact, and use your parent's preferred name.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review emphasises that non-verbal communication, including eye contact, unhurried movement, and physical proximity, matters as much as spoken words for people with advanced dementia who may have lost much of their verbal communication.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch a staff member approach a resident in a communal area. Do they crouch or sit to make eye contact, use the person's name, and wait for a response before moving on? Or do they address the room generally and keep moving? This tells you more about the caring culture than any document will."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Hillcroft was rated Good for responsiveness at its November 2023 inspection. This domain covers whether the home tailors its care to individual needs, offers meaningful activities, and supports people well at the end of life. The published inspection text contains no specific detail about the activities programme, individual engagement for people who cannot join groups, or end-of-life care practices. No concerns were raised in this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Responsiveness matters enormously for people with dementia, because boredom and under-stimulation are directly linked to increased agitation and distress. Our review data shows that activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence review highlights that group activities alone are not enough: people with more advanced dementia need structured one-to-one engagement, and homes that use everyday household tasks as meaningful activity (such as folding, sorting, or simple cooking tasks) tend to achieve better wellbeing outcomes. Ask specifically what the home does for your parent when a group session is not appropriate for them.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-focused individual activities, rather than group entertainment alone, are associated with reduced agitation and improved mood for people with moderate to advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the activity coordinator to show you the actual records of what individual residents did last week, not the printed programme. Check whether any one-to-one sessions are recorded for residents who do not or cannot join group activities, and ask what a typical afternoon looks like for someone who prefers to stay in their room."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Hillcroft was rated Good for leadership at its November 2023 inspection. A named registered manager, Ben Weisskraun, is in post, and the provider is Raycare Limited with a nominated individual, Peter John McCarten, named at registration. The published inspection text does not include specific observations about the manager's visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or how the home handles complaints and incidents. No concerns were raised in the well-led domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research shows that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality over time: homes where the manager has been in post for more than two years, is visible on the floor, and is known by name to residents and families tend to maintain and improve their standards. A named registered manager is in place here, which is a positive sign, but our family review data shows that communication with families appears in 11.5% of positive reviews, often as a differentiator between homes that feel like partners and those that feel closed off. Ask how long the current manager has been in post and what the staff turnover rate has been in the past year.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that empowering staff to raise concerns and act on them without fear is a key cultural marker of well-led homes, and that homes where staff feel unable to speak up are more likely to see gradual quality decline between inspections.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post at Hillcroft and what the staff turnover rate was in the past 12 months. Then ask one or two care staff, separately, whether they feel comfortable raising a concern about a resident's care. The answers, and the atmosphere in which they are given, will tell you a great deal about the leadership 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 home provides residential care for adults over 65, as well as younger adults who need support. They also care for people living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those with dementia, Hillcroft offers specialist residential care. The team understands the importance of creating the right environment and approach for each person's journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.