Lavender Oaks 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 beds75
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Caring for adults under 65 yrs, Dementia
- Last inspected2021-07-22
- Activities programmeThe home feels bright and spacious, with attractive communal areas and grounds that residents enjoy. Everything is kept clean and well-decorated, creating surroundings that feel more like a comfortable hotel than an institution. The variety of spaces means residents can find somewhere that suits their mood, whether they want company or quiet time.
- 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
What strikes visitors most is how approachable the staff are throughout the home. Team members take time to chat with residents and families, creating an atmosphere where people feel heard and valued. The activities programme keeps days full and social, with coordinators who spot chances for spontaneous fun alongside the regular schedule.
Based on 31 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
- Healthcare72
- Management & leadership74
- Resident happiness70
What inspectors found
Inspected 2021-07-22 · Report published 2021-07-22 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the June 2021 inspection, representing an improvement from the previous inspection cycle. The published report does not describe specific safety observations such as falls management, medicines handling, or infection control in detail. The registered manager and nominated individual are named, suggesting clear lines of accountability. The home is registered for both nursing and personal care, which means clinical oversight should be in place. No concerns about safety were flagged in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a previous Requires Improvement is genuinely encouraging. It tells you the home identified what was not working and fixed it, which is a stronger signal than a home that has always coasted at Good without being tested. That said, our family review data shows that cleanliness (mentioned in 24.3% of positive reviews) and staff attentiveness are the safety signals families notice most, and the inspection does not give you specific evidence on either. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety is most likely to slip, particularly in homes with a dementia specialism. With 75 beds, you need to know exactly how many staff are on between 10pm and 6am.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of safety risk in care homes, because unfamiliar staff do not know individual residents well enough to notice early signs of deterioration or distress.","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 agency staff, and ask specifically what the overnight ratio is for the dementia unit on a weekend."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the June 2021 inspection. This domain covers care planning, staff training, healthcare access, and nutritional care. The home holds dementia as a registered specialism, which means inspectors would have considered whether dementia-specific practice meets expected standards. No specific detail about training content, care plan quality, or GP access arrangements is included in the published summary. The improvement from Requires Improvement suggests that earlier gaps in effectiveness have been addressed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness is where the difference between a well-run dementia home and a basic one shows up most clearly. Our Good Practice evidence base, drawn from 61 studies, identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated as your parent changes, not filed away after admission. Dementia-specific training is also critical: staff need to understand how to communicate with someone who has lost verbal language, not just complete a generic care certificate. The Effective rating here is a positive signal, but the lack of published detail means you need to test this yourself. Food quality, referenced positively in 20.9% of family reviews, is also part of this domain and is entirely unaddressed in the published findings.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans which include personal history, preferences, and communication styles lead to measurably better outcomes for people living with dementia, particularly in reducing distressed behaviour.","watch_out":"Ask to see an example care plan (anonymised if necessary) and check whether it includes the person's life history, preferred name, food preferences, and how they like to spend time. A plan that reads like a medical record rather than a portrait of a person is a warning sign."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the June 2021 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, privacy, and independence. The home achieved this rating after a previous Requires Improvement, which indicates the inspection team found clear evidence of improvement in how staff interact with the people who live there. The published summary does not include specific observations about how staff address residents, whether doors are knocked before entry, or how staff respond to distress. No resident or family quotes are included in the published report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single largest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. These are the things families notice immediately on a first visit, and they are the things that make the biggest difference to your parent's daily experience. The fact that the Caring domain improved from Requires Improvement is meaningful: it tells you something was not right before and was put right. What you cannot know from the published report is whether that improvement has been sustained since 2021. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people living with dementia, and that knowing a person's preferred name and personal history is the foundation of genuine care.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that person-led care, which starts from knowing who someone is rather than what condition they have, is associated with lower rates of agitation and better emotional wellbeing in people living with dementia.","watch_out":"On your visit, notice whether staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, whether they make eye contact and speak at an unhurried pace, and whether anyone walks past a distressed resident without stopping. These moments tell you more than any rating."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the June 2021 inspection. This domain covers activities, individuality, engagement, and end-of-life care. The published report does not describe the activities programme, give examples of how the home tailors engagement to individual residents, or discuss end-of-life planning. The home holds dementia as a specialism, so inspectors would have considered whether people with dementia are supported to engage meaningfully rather than simply being kept safe. No specific detail is available in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness appears in 27.1%. For people living with dementia, activities are not optional extras: purposeful engagement reduces distressed behaviour and preserves a sense of identity. Good Practice research highlights that group activities alone are not sufficient, particularly for people in later stages of dementia who may not be able to participate. One-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks and sensory activities, is where responsive care for dementia really shows itself. The inspection gives you no evidence either way on this, so it is one of the most important things to explore when you visit.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and occupation-focused approaches, including everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, and gardening, significantly reduce agitation and improve wellbeing for people living with dementia, compared with passive group entertainment.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities schedule for this week and ask what happened yesterday afternoon for a resident who could not join the group session. If the answer is vague or the question surprises the manager, that tells you something important."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the June 2021 inspection, completing a full Good profile across all five domains. The registered manager is named as Mr Peter Robert Haysom, and the nominated individual is Mrs Lisa Sharon Soper. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good across all domains suggests that leadership has been effective in identifying and addressing problems. The published summary does not include detail about how the manager is known to staff and residents, how complaints are handled, or what governance structures are in place.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and communication with families appear in 23.4% and 11.5% of positive family reviews respectively. Good Practice research consistently finds that leadership stability is the strongest predictor of sustained quality in a care home: homes with a settled, visible manager tend to maintain standards, while those with frequent management changes tend to drift. The fact that this home recovered from a Requires Improvement rating to achieve Good across all domains is a positive sign of functional leadership. However, the inspection was carried out in June 2021, more than three years ago at the time of writing, and a lot can change. Asking how long the current manager has been in post is one of the most useful questions you can ask.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that 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 those where leadership is distant or reactive.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and whether there have been any significant staffing changes in the past 12 months. Ask how the home communicates with families when something changes, not just in a crisis, but on a routine basis."}
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 those living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on While the home welcomes residents with dementia, families considering this option should visit to discuss how the home would meet their loved one's specific needs. Some aspects of the dementia provision have worked well for residents, though the home may find it challenging to support those with more complex presentations. — 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
Lavender Oaks Care Home scores 73 out of 100, reflecting a solid Good rating achieved across all five inspection domains after a previous Requires Improvement rating. The score is held back by limited specific detail in the published report on activities, food, and family communication.
Homes in London typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
What strikes visitors most is how approachable the staff are throughout the home. Team members take time to chat with residents and families, creating an atmosphere where people feel heard and valued. The activities programme keeps days full and social, with coordinators who spot chances for spontaneous fun alongside the regular schedule.
What inspectors have recorded
Staff show genuine care for residents' wellbeing, with many families noting how team members go beyond just completing tasks. The general manager keeps an open-door approach, making themselves available for informal chats when concerns arise. This personal investment shows particularly in end-of-life care, where staff handle difficult times with real sensitivity.
How it sits against good practice
For many residents, Lavender Oaks has become a place where they've found both comfort and community in their later years.
Worth a visit
Lavender Oaks Care Home, at 4 Metcalfe Avenue in Carshalton, was rated Good at its most recent inspection in June 2021, with Good ratings across all five domains: safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led. This is a meaningful improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating and suggests the leadership team responded effectively to earlier concerns. The home is registered for 75 beds and holds dementia as a specialism alongside nursing care for adults of all ages. The main limitation of this report is that the published summary is brief and does not include specific observations, resident quotes, or family testimony to illustrate what daily life looks like. A Good rating tells you the inspector was satisfied; it does not tell you what your dad's Tuesday afternoon will feel like. When you visit, focus on what you can observe directly: whether staff greet your parent by name, whether the building smells clean and feels calm, and whether there is someone clearly in charge and visible on the floor. Ask to see the dementia unit specifically, request last week's staffing rota, and find out how many agency staff covered shifts in the past month.
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In Their Own Words
How Lavender Oaks Care Home describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Spacious Surrey home where residents find comfort and companionship
Compassionate Care in Carshalton at Lavender Oaks Care Home
When families visit Lavender Oaks Care Home in Carshalton, they often comment on how content their loved ones seem. This established care home has built its reputation on creating a warm environment where residents feel genuinely comfortable. The spacious building and well-kept grounds give everyone room to breathe, while the friendly atmosphere helps new residents settle in quickly.
Who they care for
The home cares for adults both over and under 65, including those living with dementia.
While the home welcomes residents with dementia, families considering this option should visit to discuss how the home would meet their loved one's specific needs. Some aspects of the dementia provision have worked well for residents, though the home may find it challenging to support those with more complex presentations.
Management & ethos
Staff show genuine care for residents' wellbeing, with many families noting how team members go beyond just completing tasks. The general manager keeps an open-door approach, making themselves available for informal chats when concerns arise. This personal investment shows particularly in end-of-life care, where staff handle difficult times with real sensitivity.
The home & environment
The home feels bright and spacious, with attractive communal areas and grounds that residents enjoy. Everything is kept clean and well-decorated, creating surroundings that feel more like a comfortable hotel than an institution. The variety of spaces means residents can find somewhere that suits their mood, whether they want company or quiet time.
“For many residents, Lavender Oaks has become a place where they've found both comfort and community in their later years.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
