Temple Croft Care Home

What families say

Visitors describe residents as noticeably calmer and more settled here. The team works to create an environment where people feel genuinely at ease, with activities and outings that keep everyone engaged. For those who prefer quieter days, there's a private garden that offers a peaceful retreat.

Based on 13 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 & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-03-03 · Report published 2022-03-03 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection awarded a rating of Good for safety. Beyond this rating, the published report does not include specific observations about staffing levels, medicines management, infection control practices, or falls monitoring. The home cares for adults over 65, including people living with dementia, in a 40-bed residential setting. No concerns were flagged that would indicate immediate risk. The home had previously been rated Requires Improvement, so improvements in safety practice are implied but not described in detail.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the absence of specific inspection detail means you cannot rely on the report alone to understand how safe your parent would be day to day. Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety most often slips in smaller residential homes, and that heavy reliance on agency staff undermines the consistency your parent needs. The fact that this home improved from Requires Improvement is a positive sign, but it is worth asking directly what specific changes were made and how the home now monitors incidents like falls. Ask to see the accident and incident log for the last three months as a concrete test of whether learning from events is happening.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review (March 2026) found that night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance are two of the strongest predictors of safety outcomes in care homes for people living with dementia. Homes that improved their ratings most sustainably had introduced permanent night staff and structured handover processes.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm on a typical weeknight, and what was the average number of agency shifts used per week in the last three months? Then ask to see the incident log to check whether falls and near-misses are being recorded and reviewed."}

  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, or food provision. The home specialises in dementia care for adults over 65, which means effective practice should include dementia-specific training for all staff and regularly reviewed, person-centred care plans. No concerns were raised in this domain, and the improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating suggests practice has developed, but the report does not describe how.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families choosing a dementia care home, effectiveness means much more than a rating on a form. It means staff who have had real dementia training, not just an online tick-box, and care plans that reflect who your parent actually is: their routines, their preferences, and what they find distressing. Food quality is one of the most reliable signals of genuine care because it touches daily life directly. Our review data shows food and healthcare appear in 20.9% and 20.2% of positive family reviews respectively. The inspection does not give specific detail on any of these areas for Temple Croft, so you will need to test them on a visit. Ask to see a sample care plan (anonymised) and ask the cook what they do when a resident stops eating.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed at least monthly for people with advancing dementia. Homes rated Good or Outstanding consistently showed family involvement in care plan reviews, with relatives able to request updates between scheduled reviews.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how often are care plans formally reviewed, and can you sit in on a review or read an anonymised example? Also ask what dementia training staff have completed in the last 12 months and whether it included any face-to-face or simulation-based learning."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection awarded a Good rating for caring. No specific observations about staff warmth, dignity in personal care, use of preferred names, or response to distress are recorded in the published text. For a home specialising in dementia care, the caring domain is particularly important because people living with dementia may not be able to advocate for themselves. The rating implies inspectors were satisfied with what they saw, but the absence of detail means families cannot draw on specific evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, appearing in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. What families describe in those reviews are specific, observable things: staff using a parent's preferred name, not rushing during personal care, sitting down rather than standing over someone, and noticing distress before it escalates. The inspection rating tells you inspectors were satisfied, but it does not tell you whether those specific behaviours are present here. When you visit, pay close attention to how staff interact with residents in the corridors and communal areas, not just how they speak to you. Good Practice research emphasises that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal communication for people living with dementia.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that person-led care requires staff to know the individual well enough to read non-verbal cues accurately. Homes with low staff turnover consistently showed better outcomes on dignity and distress recognition because staff had built genuine knowledge of each person over time.","watch_out":"During your visit, sit in a communal area for at least 15 minutes and watch how staff approach your parent's potential neighbours. Do they crouch or sit to make eye contact? Do they use names? Do they move without rushing? These behaviours are more reliable signals than anything staff say to you directly."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated responsiveness as Good. The published report does not describe the activities programme, one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join group activities, how individual preferences are incorporated into daily life, or how end-of-life care is approached. For a 40-bed dementia-specialist home, a meaningful activities programme tailored to individual ability is a core quality marker. The absence of specific findings here is a significant gap in the available evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and meaningful engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. But what families describe goes beyond organised group activities: it is whether your parent has something purposeful to do on a Tuesday afternoon when the scheduled activity has finished, or whether someone sits with them one to one if they cannot manage groups. Good Practice research is clear that for people with moderate to advanced dementia, individual engagement based on familiar life roles (such as folding laundry, tending plants, or looking through photographs) produces better wellbeing outcomes than group entertainment. The inspection does not tell us whether Temple Croft offers this kind of tailored engagement. You should ask specifically about this on your visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and life-history approaches to activity, where tasks are matched to the individual's retained abilities and personal history, significantly reduce distress behaviours and improve observed wellbeing in people living with dementia. Group-only activity programmes were associated with exclusion of residents with more advanced needs.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: what would my parent do on a day when they did not feel like joining a group? Can you describe the last time you did something one to one with a resident who could not participate in group activities, and what did that look like?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The inspection rated leadership as Good, which is a notable improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating. The nominated individual is named as Mrs Laxmi Avtar Kaur Khurana, and the home is run by Dryband One Limited. A July 2023 review of data and information found no evidence requiring reassessment of the rating. The published report does not describe the manager's visibility on the floor, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home responds to complaints and incidents.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research is consistent on one point: leadership stability is the strongest single predictor of quality trajectory in a care home. A home that has improved from Requires Improvement to Good has done something right, and that usually means a manager who has taken clear ownership and made specific changes. But the improvements need to be embedded, not fragile. Communication with families appears in 11.5% of positive reviews, and families consistently describe a manager who knows residents by name and is visible on the floor rather than behind a desk. The inspection does not give you enough detail to assess whether Temple Croft's leadership meets that standard. The key question to ask is what specifically changed since the previous rating and how the home makes sure those changes stick.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that homes which sustained improvement after a rating change had managers who had introduced structured governance mechanisms (such as regular audits, staff supervision, and family feedback loops) rather than relying on individual effort alone. Bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff could raise concerns without fear, was a consistent marker of genuinely improving homes.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: what was the main reason for the previous Requires Improvement rating, what specific changes were made, and how do you check that those changes are still happening? A confident, specific answer is a good sign. Vagueness or deflection is worth noting."}

  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 Temple Croft specialises in dementia care and supports adults over 65. The home focuses on helping residents maintain their communication skills and stay connected with the world around them.. Gaps or open questions remain on Families particularly value how the dementia care here seems to help residents rediscover their ability to engage in conversations. The team's dementia-specific training appears to translate into practical support that makes a real difference in residents' daily lives. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.