St Quentin Residential Homes Ltd

What families say

Based on 21 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth70
• Compassion & dignity70
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership45
• Resident happiness65

What inspectors found

Inspected 2024-02-01 · Report published 2024-02-01 · Inspected 7 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the December 2023 inspection, representing an improvement from the previous assessment. The published report does not provide specific observations about falls management, medicines administration, infection control, or night staffing ratios. The home is registered for nursing care, which means qualified nurses should be present around the clock, but the inspection text does not confirm this in detail. No concerns about safety were flagged in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, particularly given the home previously required improvement. However, the published findings are thin on specifics, and for a 73-bed home caring for people with dementia and nursing needs, the details matter enormously. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips, and our family review data highlights staff attentiveness as a key concern for 14% of reviewers. You should not assume a Good rating means every safety question is answered. Ask specifically about night staffing numbers and how medication errors or falls are recorded and reviewed.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance and reduced night staffing are the two factors most strongly associated with avoidable safety incidents in care homes. A Good rating does not confirm either of these is well managed unless the inspection text addresses them directly.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not the template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff covered the night shifts, and ask what the minimum staffing level is overnight for a 73-bed home with dementia residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the December 2023 inspection. The home is registered for nursing care and for dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments, indicating it should have systems in place for complex health needs. The published findings do not describe care plan quality, GP access arrangements, dementia training content, or food and nutrition in any detail. No concerns about effectiveness were raised in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home means your parent's health needs are identified, planned for, and reviewed regularly, not just managed reactively. Food quality is one of the strongest signals families look for, mentioned positively in 20.9% of our family review data, and it is also a practical indicator of how well a home understands individual needs. Care plans as living documents, updated after every significant change in your parent's condition, are what Good Practice evidence identifies as the clearest marker of effective care. None of this is visible in the published report, so you will need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that care plans are most effective when they are co-produced with the person and their family, reviewed at least monthly for people with dementia, and accessible to all staff on shift, not stored in an office folder. Ask to see a blank care plan template and ask how families are involved in reviews.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager how often care plans are formally reviewed and whether families receive a copy or are invited to review meetings. Then ask what dementia-specific training staff have completed in the past 12 months and who delivers it."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the December 2023 inspection. The published report does not include specific observations of staff interactions, quotes from residents or relatives about warmth or dignity, or descriptions of how staff support independence. A Good rating in this domain indicates inspectors did not find evidence of poor practice, but the absence of detailed findings makes it difficult to assess the quality of day-to-day interactions.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are the things that will shape your parent's daily experience more than any rating. The Good Practice evidence emphasises that for people with dementia, non-verbal communication, unhurried body language, eye contact at the same level, and the use of a person's preferred name, matters as much as anything that can be written in a care plan. A Good rating here is a baseline, not a guarantee. Observe these things yourself when you visit.","evidence_base":"Research from the Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review confirms that person-led care requires staff to know the individual well, including their history, preferences, and what comforts them when distressed. Homes that invest in life history work and keep it at the bedside consistently show better outcomes for residents with dementia.","watch_out":"When you visit, notice how staff address your parent or other residents in corridors and communal areas. Do they use first names or preferred names? Do they make eye contact and crouch to speak at eye level? Do they seem unhurried? These observable behaviours are more informative than any conversation with the manager."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the December 2023 inspection. The home is registered to care for adults with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments, suggesting it should have tailored approaches to individual needs. The published findings do not describe the activity programme, how individual preferences are captured, what happens for residents who cannot join group activities, or how end-of-life wishes are recorded. No concerns about responsiveness were identified in the published text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is identified in 27.1% of our family review data as a key positive signal, and activities are mentioned in 21.4%. A Good rating in Responsive is encouraging, but for a parent with dementia, the critical question is what happens when group activities are not suitable. Good Practice research is clear that tailored one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks, music linked to personal history, or simply a short walk outdoors with a member of staff, produces measurably better wellbeing outcomes than group programmes alone. This is the area where the difference between a good home and a great one is most visible.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University review found that Montessori-based approaches and personalised one-to-one activities, particularly those rooted in a person's pre-illness roles and routines, significantly reduce distress and improve quality of life for people living with dementia, even at advanced stages.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity programme from the past two weeks, not a planned schedule but what actually happened. Then ask what one-to-one engagement is available for residents who cannot safely or comfortably join group sessions, and how staff decide what to offer them."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the December 2023 inspection, the only domain not to achieve Good. Mrs Jacinta Mary Greatrex is the registered manager and Mrs Andrea Hayward is the nominated individual. The published report does not explain in detail what specific governance or leadership failings led to this rating. The overall trajectory is positive as the home improved from Requires Improvement overall to Good overall, but leadership quality remains a concern identified by inspectors.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Requires Improvement rating in Well-led is the most important thing to scrutinise in this report. Leadership stability is the strongest predictor of whether a care home sustains its improvements or slips back, according to Good Practice evidence. Our family review data shows that communication with families, cited in 11.5% of positive reviews, depends almost entirely on management setting the tone. The fact that four other domains improved is encouraging, but inspectors still found something in the governance or leadership of this home that was not yet good enough. You deserve to know what that was.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base is unambiguous: homes with stable, empowering leadership, where staff feel able to speak up and where the manager is visibly present on the floor, consistently outperform those with leadership gaps on every quality measure, including safety incidents, staff turnover, and resident wellbeing.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly what the inspectors found to be insufficient in the Well-led domain and what specific changes have been made since December 2023. A manager who can answer this clearly and with evidence is a positive sign. Vague reassurances are not."}

  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 accepts residents under 65 with physical disabilities alongside older residents, and provides specialist support for sensory impairments. They offer both residential and nursing care levels, with dedicated dementia provision.. Gaps or open questions remain on St Quentin includes dementia care within its services, though families have reported very different experiences of how well residents with dementia are supported and understood by staff. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.