OSJCT Skirbeck Court

What families say

Visitors regularly comment on the calm, settled atmosphere throughout the home. Residents take part in organised activities and events, with staff encouraging everyone to join in at their own pace. The general feeling is one of contentment — residents seem comfortable and well-supported in their daily routines.

Based on 46 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-12-31 · Report published 2019-12-31 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good. Beyond that overall judgement, the published report does not include specific observations about staffing ratios, falls management, medicines administration, infection control practices, or agency staff usage. The home is registered to care for adults with dementia and sensory impairments, both of which carry particular safety considerations. A monitoring review in July 2023 found no evidence of concerns serious enough to trigger a new inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is the minimum you should expect, and it is genuinely meaningful. However, our Good Practice evidence base (drawn from 61 studies) consistently flags night staffing as the point where safety is most likely to slip, particularly in homes caring for people with dementia. The inspection text here gives you no information about night staffing numbers, falls logging, or how the home learns from incidents. You need to ask those questions directly. Cleanliness accounts for 24.3% of the positive themes in our family review data, and families consistently notice it within minutes of arriving, so use your own eyes on the day you visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance undermines continuity of care and is one of the clearest early warning signs of a safety culture under pressure. Ask specifically what proportion of shifts last month were covered by agency staff.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for a recent week, not a template. Count the number of permanent staff names versus agency names, and ask specifically how many staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm on a weeknight."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good. The published text does not include specific findings about care plan quality, GP access, dementia training content, food provision, or how the home supports people with sensory impairments. The home is registered to provide personal care to people with dementia, which requires staff trained to interpret non-verbal communication and support behaviour that may reflect unmet need. No specific training records, care plan examples, or dietary observations are described in the available report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Food quality appears in 20.9% of positive family reviews and is one of the most reliable indicators of whether a home genuinely knows its residents as individuals. A good kitchen understands texture-modified diets, religious or cultural preferences, and the reality that appetite changes as dementia progresses. The inspection gives you no detail here, so tasting the food and watching a mealtime is one of the most useful things you can do on a visit. Our Good Practice evidence also highlights care plans as living documents that should be reviewed regularly with family input, not filed and forgotten.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training which goes beyond basic awareness, covering communication, behavioural support, and person-centred approaches, is a consistent predictor of better daily experience for the person living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training staff have completed in the last 12 months and whether it covers non-verbal communication specifically. Also ask how often care plans are reviewed and whether families are invited to contribute to those reviews."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good. The published report does not include direct observations of staff interactions, quotes from residents or relatives about how they are treated, or specific examples of dignity being maintained. Staff warmth and compassion are the two highest-weighted themes in family satisfaction data, at 57.3% and 55.2% respectively, which makes the absence of specific inspection detail here the most significant gap in what is publicly available about this home.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews. The things that signal it are specific and observable: does a carer knock before entering a room, do they use your mum's preferred name without being prompted, do they move without hurry when she needs help? You cannot assess this from an inspection report that contains no direct observations. A Good rating in the Caring domain is encouraging, but you need to see it for yourself. Our Good Practice evidence is clear that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken words, particularly for people with advanced dementia.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that person-centred care requires staff to know the individual, not just their diagnosis. Homes where staff know residents' life histories, preferences, and communication styles consistently show better wellbeing outcomes.","watch_out":"When you visit, watch how staff greet your parent in a corridor or common area when they do not know you are observing. Do they use a name? Do they make eye contact? Do they stop moving to engage, or do they keep walking? This tells you more than any answer to a direct question."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good. The published report does not describe the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join group activities, or how the home supports people with dementia to maintain their sense of identity and routine. The home is registered for both dementia and sensory impairment, both of which require adapted approaches to engagement that go beyond standard group activities. No detail about end-of-life planning or complaint handling is included in the available text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and resident happiness together account for nearly half of the positive themes in our family review data, and the Good Practice evidence is particularly clear that tailored one-to-one activity matters most for people with dementia who cannot easily join groups. A home that only counts group sessions is not meeting the needs of the most affected residents. Ask to see not just the activity schedule but the record of what your parent specifically did last Tuesday. Everyday tasks, making a cup of tea, folding laundry, watering a plant, can carry real meaning for people with dementia and preserve a sense of continuity.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and task-oriented individual activities, rather than group-only programming, are associated with reduced agitation and improved wellbeing in people with moderate to advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical Tuesday looked like for a resident with advanced dementia who rarely leaves their room. If the answer is vague or defaults entirely to group sessions, that is a gap worth pressing on."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated this domain Good. The home is run by The Orders of St. John Care Trust, a charitable provider with a substantial portfolio of care homes. A named registered manager, Mrs Naomi Dawn Bender, is recorded, with Mr James Norman Robson listed as nominated individual. The published report does not include observations about management visibility, staff culture, how the home responds to complaints, or whether staff feel empowered to raise concerns. The monitoring review in July 2023 found no evidence to warrant reassessment.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the clearest predictors of care quality over time. Our Good Practice evidence found that leadership continuity shapes everything from staff morale to how quickly problems are identified and fixed. The Good rating here is positive, but the inspection is now over five years old. Staff turnover, management changes, and occupancy pressures can all shift a home's culture significantly in that time. Communication with families accounts for 11.5% of the positive themes in our review data, so ask directly how the home keeps you informed if something goes wrong.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that homes where staff feel able to speak up, and where leadership visibly acts on what they hear, consistently outperform homes where concerns are managed upward rather than resolved at the point of care.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long they have been in post and whether the registered manager listed in the 2019 inspection is still in the role. Then ask how the home communicates with families when there has been a fall, a health change, or a complaint. Listen for specifics, not policy language."}

  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 specialist support for dementia and sensory impairments, caring for adults both under and over 65.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff here understand the particular challenges of dementia, adapting their approach to each resident's needs. The structured daily activities and familiar routines help provide the stability that's so important for people living with memory loss. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.