Oldfield Bank Residential Care Home

What families say

Relatives talk about seeing real change in their loved ones here. People who'd been bed-bound are walking again with careful support. Those who'd stopped engaging with life are taking part in themed events and local visits. The difference shows in small but important ways — residents choosing their meals, joining conversations, even just sitting comfortably in the lounge rather than staying in their rooms.

Based on 6 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
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership74
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-07-11 · Report published 2023-07-11 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the May 2023 inspection. This follows a previous Requires Improvement rating, so inspectors found enough evidence of improvement to satisfy themselves that safety arrangements were adequate. No specific observations about falls management, medicines handling, infection control, or night staffing are recorded in the published summary. The home has 28 beds and specialises in dementia care, a population that typically carries higher safety risk due to mobility challenges and disorientation.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a period of Requires Improvement is reassuring, but the absence of published detail means you cannot yet know what specifically changed. Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips in smaller residential homes, and 28 beds is a size where one carer being absent overnight can significantly change the picture. Our family review data shows that visible staff attentiveness is among the top concerns families raise. Before you decide, ask to see the incident log for the past three months and ask how many staff are on overnight.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (61 studies, 2026) found that night staffing ratios and agency staff consistency are the two strongest predictors of safety outcomes in residential dementia care. Homes that had improved their rating benefited most when they had stabilised their permanent staff team.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how many permanent members of staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm on a typical night, and how often agency staff cover those shifts. Request the actual rota from the past two weeks, not the template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the May 2023 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and hydration. No specific detail about dementia training content, GP access frequency, care plan quality, or food provision is included in the published summary. The previous Requires Improvement rating means that inspectors had previously identified gaps in effectiveness, so it is worth understanding what those gaps were and how they were resolved.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home means staff know how to interpret behaviour that might look like aggression or withdrawal but is actually pain or distress. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that care plans function as living documents, updated as the person changes, rather than paperwork filed at admission. Food quality is also a meaningful signal: 20.9% of positive family reviews specifically mention mealtimes as a marker of genuine care. None of this detail is available in the published findings, so you will need to ask directly about training content and how often care plans are reviewed with family input.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training that covers non-verbal communication and pain recognition, rather than just general care skills, is significantly associated with better outcomes for people with advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample menu for the week and ask when a resident's care plan was last reviewed and whether families were invited to contribute to that review. Ask specifically what the dementia training covers and how recently each staff member completed it."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the May 2023 inspection. This is the domain that captures whether staff are kind, whether dignity is respected, and whether your parent's individuality is recognised. No inspector observations about staff interactions, no resident quotes, and no relative feedback are included in the published summary. Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in family satisfaction data, and its absence from the published findings is a significant gap in what you can assess remotely.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth accounts for 57.3% of positive family reviews in our data set of 3,602 reviews across more than 5,000 UK care homes. Compassion and dignity account for a further 55.2%. These are the things that most families mean when they say a home feels right. Because the inspection text contains no specific observations here, the only way to assess this for Oldfield Bank is to visit at different times of day, ideally including late afternoon when staff are tired and busier. Watch how staff address residents in corridors, whether they knock before entering rooms, and whether any resident is left waiting or calling out.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication, how staff move around a person, make eye contact, and adjust their pace, matters as much as what they say. Person-led care requires knowing the individual's history, not just their diagnosis.","watch_out":"On your visit, stand in a communal area for ten minutes without announcing yourself as a visitor. Notice whether staff address residents by their preferred names, whether anyone is sitting alone without acknowledgement, and whether the pace feels unhurried."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the May 2023 inspection. This domain covers whether the home meets individual needs, whether activities are meaningful and varied, and whether end-of-life wishes are documented. No detail about the activity programme, one-to-one engagement, or end-of-life planning is included in the published summary. For a 28-bed home specialising in dementia, individual responsiveness is particularly important because group activities suit only a portion of residents at any one time.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness accounts for 27.1% of positive family reviews in our data, and activities account for 21.4%. For people with dementia, the evidence strongly supports individually tailored activities, including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or watering plants, rather than relying solely on group sessions. A Good rating in this domain is a baseline, but it does not tell you whether your parent specifically would have things to do that are meaningful to them. Ask the home what they would plan for your parent based on their history and interests.","evidence_base":"The rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday-task approaches to activity, where the activity connects to a person's life history, produce significantly better engagement and wellbeing outcomes than group entertainment alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident who cannot join group sessions. Ask how they would use your parent's life history to plan individual engagement, and whether there is a designated member of staff responsible for one-to-one time."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the May 2023 inspection. The registered manager is Mr Andrew Foote and the nominated individual is Mr Syed Amer Hussain. The home is run by 3A Care (Altrincham) Limited. The previous Requires Improvement rating means leadership was found to be insufficient at an earlier point, and the move to Good represents a confirmed improvement. No detail about manager visibility, staff culture, governance systems, or how the home learns from complaints is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in residential care. Good Practice research shows that homes with a settled, visible manager who staff can approach tend to maintain quality over time, while homes where leadership is distant or frequently changing tend to drift. Management quality accounts for 23.4% of positive family review mentions in our data. Because the previous rating was Requires Improvement, it is worth understanding directly from the manager what specifically changed and how they now monitor quality on an ongoing basis.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that leadership models where staff at all levels feel empowered to raise concerns, and where the manager is regularly visible on the floor rather than office-based, are consistently associated with better resident outcomes and faster identification of problems.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post, what the previous inspection identified as concerns, and what specific changes were made in response. Ask how staff raise concerns and whether there have been any whistleblowing or complaint investigations in the past 12 months."}

  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 specialises in dementia care and supporting adults over 65. Their approach focuses on maintaining independence and dignity while providing the right level of support for each person's needs.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the team works to preserve abilities rather than just manage decline. They use familiar activities and gentle encouragement to keep people engaged, adapting their approach as needs change while maintaining each person's sense of self. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.