Lilleybrook 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 beds62
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Dementia
- Last inspected2023-05-31
- 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
Based on 13 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10
The eight family priority themes
- Staff warmth72
- Compassion & dignity74
- Cleanliness72
- Activities & engagement68
- Food quality65
- Healthcare70
- Management & leadership76
- Resident happiness72
What inspectors found
Inspected 2023-05-31 · Report published 2023-05-31 · Inspected 9 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"Lilleybrook Care Home was rated Good for safety at the April 2023 inspection, representing an improvement from its previous rating. The inspection covered a 62-bed nursing home specialising in dementia and older adult care. The published extract does not include specific detail on staffing ratios, medicines management, falls logging, or infection control practices, so the precise evidence base for the Good rating is not visible in the supplied text. The home is registered and active, with no dormancy recorded.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a period of Requires Improvement is meaningful, but it is the starting point of your questions, not the end of them. Good Practice research consistently highlights night staffing as the point where safety most commonly slips in nursing homes, and agency reliance as a key factor undermining consistency for people with dementia. Because the inspection text does not give specific numbers for either, you need to ask directly. Cleanliness accounts for 24.3% of positive signals in our family review data, so walk the unit yourself and look at communal bathrooms and sluice areas as well as the lounge.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety in dementia care is most reliably predicted by staffing consistency at night and robust incident-learning systems, rather than by daytime observation alone.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for a typical week, not just the template. Count permanent staff versus agency staff on night shifts, and ask how many registered nurses are on duty overnight for the 62 beds."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at the April 2023 inspection. Lilleybrook provides nursing care alongside personal care, which means registered nurses are involved in health monitoring and clinical decision-making. The home specialises in dementia, so care planning should reflect the specific communication and cognitive needs of the people living there. The published extract does not detail how frequently care plans are reviewed, how families are included, or what dementia training staff have completed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For your parent with dementia, effectiveness means more than ticking clinical boxes. It means care plans that are updated as their needs change, staff who know how to interpret behaviour as communication, and reliable GP access when something is wrong. Dementia-specific care accounts for 12.7% of the themes our family reviewers mention positively. The Good rating here is encouraging, but because the inspection text does not specify training content or care plan review frequency, you should ask for that detail directly. Food quality, which drives 20.9% of positive family reviews, is also not described in the available findings.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated at least monthly in dementia care settings, with family input at each review. Homes that treat care plans as administrative paperwork rather than working tools show poorer outcomes for residents with advancing dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample care plan, with personal details removed. Check whether it records your parent's preferred name, daily routines, food preferences, and how staff should respond when they become distressed. If it reads like a medical form rather than a portrait of a person, that tells you something important."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"Lilleybrook was rated Good for caring at the April 2023 inspection. This domain covers dignity, respect, warmth, and whether staff treat people as individuals. The home had previously been rated Requires Improvement, so reaching Good in caring represents a real shift. The published extract does not include direct observations of staff interactions, resident testimony about how they feel treated, or specific examples of dignity being upheld. The detailed evidence behind the rating is not visible in the supplied 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 appears in 55.2%. These are not soft measures. They are the things families remember and the things that shape your parent's daily experience far more than clinical metrics. The Good rating here is a positive signal, particularly given the improvement from before. What you cannot know from this inspection extract is whether warmth is consistent across all shifts or concentrated in a few visible staff members. That is what a visit at different times of day will reveal.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people with advancing dementia. Staff who make eye contact, move without rushing, and respond calmly to distress produce measurably better wellbeing outcomes than those who are technically correct but functionally brisk.","watch_out":"Visit once mid-morning and once after 4pm, ideally on different days. Watch how staff move through corridors and respond when a resident calls out or appears confused. Are they stopping, crouching to eye level, and speaking calmly? Or are they moving past quickly? That difference is what Good caring actually looks like in practice."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The home received a Good rating for responsiveness at the April 2023 inspection. Responsiveness covers whether people have a life at the home: activities, individual engagement, respect for personal preferences, and end-of-life planning. Lilleybrook's dementia specialism means responsiveness should include tailored individual activities, not just group programmes. The published extract does not describe what activities are available, whether one-to-one engagement is offered to people who cannot join groups, or how end-of-life wishes are recorded and honoured.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive signals in our family review data, and resident happiness accounts for 27.1%. For your parent with dementia, a good activity programme is not just about entertainment. It is about maintaining identity, reducing anxiety, and having moments of pleasure and connection every day. Good Practice research highlights that people with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions need one-to-one engagement, whether that is hand massage, familiar music, or help with a simple household task. Because this inspection text does not describe what is actually offered, ask specifically about provision for people who need individual rather than group support.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and individualised activity approaches significantly reduce distress behaviours in people with dementia compared with group-only programmes. Everyday household tasks, folding, sorting, simple cooking, provide continuity of identity and a sense of purpose.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what happened yesterday for a resident with advanced dementia who could not join a group session. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that tells you something important about how individual the provision actually is."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"Lilleybrook was rated Good for leadership at the April 2023 inspection, up from Requires Improvement previously. The registered manager is named in the registration as Ms Kim Esther Naudea Chance-Dundas, and the nominated individual is Mr Philip Klor. The improvement across all five domains simultaneously suggests a leadership change or a sustained improvement programme rather than a single quick fix. The published extract does not describe manager visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or how the home has embedded the changes that led to the improved rating.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management accounts for 23.4% of positive family review themes, and communication with families accounts for 11.5%. The fact that this home moved from Requires Improvement to Good across every single domain in one inspection cycle is actually a significant leadership achievement. It suggests someone in charge who identified what was wrong and followed through. Good Practice research consistently shows that leadership stability predicts quality trajectory, meaning a well-embedded manager who has owned an improvement programme is often a stronger indicator of future quality than a home that has always been rated Good without ever being tested. Communication with your family once your parent moves in is the practical measure of leadership quality you will feel most directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that leadership stability and a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear are the strongest predictors of sustained quality in care homes. Homes that achieve rapid improvement after a poor rating often outperform those that have plateaued at Good because the improvement process builds reflective practice.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what was the main reason for the previous Requires Improvement rating, and what specifically changed? A confident, detailed answer suggests a leader who owns the home's history. A vague or defensive answer suggests the improvement may be more superficial."}
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 Lilleybrook specialises in supporting older adults with dementia. They provide both nursing and residential care options, giving families flexibility as needs change.. Gaps or open questions remain on Dementia care forms a core part of what Lilleybrook offers. The home provides specialist support for residents living with different types of dementia, with trained staff who understand the condition. — 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
Lilleybrook Care Home scores 74 out of 100, reflecting a home that has genuinely improved from a previous Requires Improvement rating to Good across all five inspection areas. The score sits in the positive-but-general range because the published inspection text does not include the specific observations, quotes, and direct evidence that would push it higher.
Homes in South West typically score 68–82.Worth a visit
Lilleybrook Care Home, on Pilley Lane in Cheltenham, was rated Good at its most recent inspection in April 2023, with the report published in May 2023. Importantly, this is an improvement from a previous rating of Requires Improvement, meaning inspectors found real, measurable progress across all five areas: safety, effectiveness, caring, responsiveness, and leadership. That upward trend matters. Homes that have worked to turn things around often have a more self-aware culture than those that have always coasted. The main uncertainty here is that the published inspection text provided is very brief, and the detailed observations, resident and family quotes, and specific examples that would allow a fuller picture are not available in the supplied report extract. This does not mean anything is wrong; it means you should visit in person and ask direct questions. In particular, ask how the home identified and addressed the issues that led to the earlier Requires Improvement rating, and what has changed since then. That conversation will tell you a great deal about the leadership culture.
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In Their Own Words
How Lilleybrook Care Home describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Specialist dementia care in the heart of Cheltenham
Compassionate Care in Cheltenham at Lilleybrook Care Home
When you're looking for dementia care in Cheltenham, finding the right support matters. Lilleybrook Care Home provides specialist care for people over 65 living with dementia. The care home offers both nursing and residential support in a dedicated setting.
Who they care for
The team at Lilleybrook specialises in supporting older adults with dementia. They provide both nursing and residential care options, giving families flexibility as needs change.
Dementia care forms a core part of what Lilleybrook offers. The home provides specialist support for residents living with different types of dementia, with trained staff who understand the condition.
“Getting to know a care home properly takes time. Visiting Lilleybrook will help you understand if it's the right place for your family.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
