The Beeches

What families say

Based on 4 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement62
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership74
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-11-11 · Report published 2022-11-11 · Inspected 9 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain is rated Good at the September 2025 inspection. This covers staffing levels, medicines management, safeguarding, and infection control. The home had previously been rated Requires Improvement overall, so a Good Safe rating represents a meaningful improvement. No specific concerns about safety were recorded in the published report. The detail behind this rating, including staffing numbers, falls data, and medication audit outcomes, is not available in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating means inspectors were satisfied with the arrangements in place to protect your parent, but it does not tell you what it looks like at 2am on a Tuesday. Research from the Good Practice evidence base consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety is most likely to slip in smaller residential homes. For a 23-bed home with a dementia specialism, knowing how many staff are on overnight, and whether at least one has specific dementia training, is one of the most important questions you can ask. Our family review data also shows that families who feel reassured about safety are more likely to name staff attentiveness as the reason, not paperwork. Ask to see the signing-in log for the last month and look for patterns of agency cover.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of safety inconsistency in smaller care homes, because continuity of staff knowledge directly affects the ability to spot early changes in a person with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the home directly: how many staff are on duty between 10pm and 7am, and how many of those are permanent employees rather than agency or bank staff?"}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain is rated Good, covering training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and the use of evidence-based approaches. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to dementia-specific practice, but the published report does not describe the content or frequency of dementia training for staff. Care planning, GP access, and food are all implied to be satisfactory through the rating, but no specific examples, records, or observations are reproduced in the available text.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For your mum or dad with dementia, the Effective domain is where the real quality of day-to-day care is decided. A Good rating here means inspectors found satisfactory care planning and training, but the Good Practice evidence base shows that the gap between adequate and excellent often lies in whether care plans are treated as living documents or filed and forgotten. Families in our review data who rated care homes most highly in this area almost always mentioned that staff knew their parent's history, preferences, and routines without needing to be reminded. Ask whether your parent's key worker can describe, without checking a file, what time they like to wake up and how they take their tea.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that care plans updated with active family input, and reviewed at least every three months, were associated with significantly better person-centred outcomes for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how often are care plans formally reviewed, and would a family member be invited to contribute to that review in person or by phone?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain is rated Good, which is the domain most directly linked to staff warmth, dignity, and respectful treatment. This is the domain that carries the highest weight in our Family Score, reflecting what families tell us they care about most. The published report does not include inspector observations of staff-resident interactions, quotes from residents or relatives, or specific examples of dignity in practice. The rating itself confirms that inspectors were satisfied with what they found.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth accounts for 57.3 percent of what families in our review data say matters most when choosing a care home, and compassion and dignity account for a further 55.2 percent. A Good Caring rating is an important signal, but the most reliable evidence you can gather is what you see on a visit, not what you read in a report. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal: watch whether staff make eye contact with your parent, whether they crouch to their level, and whether they use your parent's preferred name. These small behaviours are the difference between good-on-paper and genuinely kind.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that person-led care in dementia requires staff to know the individual, not just the care plan. Knowing a person's life history, what they were proud of, and what still brings them pleasure is the foundation of genuinely compassionate dementia care.","watch_out":"When you visit, listen to how staff address your parent and other residents: do they use first names or preferred names, do they knock before entering rooms, and do they explain what they are doing before they do it?"}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain is rated Good, covering activities, individualised care, and responsiveness to changing needs including end-of-life care. No specific activity programme details, examples of individual engagement, or descriptions of how the home supports residents with advanced dementia who cannot participate in group sessions are included in the published report. For a home with a dementia specialism, the absence of this detail makes it difficult to assess the quality of daily life for residents.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness accounts for 27.1 percent of what families identify as important in our review data, and activities account for a further 21.4 percent. For your parent with dementia, the question is not whether there is a weekly activity timetable but whether there is something meaningful available on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon for someone who can no longer join a group. The Good Practice evidence base highlights Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks, such as folding laundry or tending to plants, as some of the most effective ways to maintain a sense of purpose and continuity for people with dementia. Ask the home what happens for residents who spend most of their time in their room.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review identified that homes providing structured one-to-one engagement for residents with advanced dementia showed measurably lower rates of agitation and withdrawal, even without high staffing ratios, when that engagement was tailored to the individual's life history.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: what happens for a resident who cannot join group sessions? Can you describe what a typical afternoon looks like for someone in their room with advanced dementia?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain is rated Good, and the home has a named registered manager, Mrs Lisa Fenton Jones, supported by a nominated individual, Mr Saad Ul Konain Khawaja. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good across all domains is the most concrete evidence of effective leadership available in the published report. It indicates that concerns from the previous inspection were identified, acted upon, and resolved to the inspector's satisfaction. No specific information about manager tenure, staff culture, governance meetings, or how families are kept informed is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management leadership accounts for 23.4 percent of what families in our review data identify as important, and communication with families accounts for a further 11.5 percent. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of a care home's quality trajectory: homes with consistent, visible managers tend to sustain improvement, while homes where managers change frequently often slide. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good is genuinely encouraging, but it is worth asking how long the current manager has been in post and whether they are present on most days of the week. A manager who knows your parent by name is a good sign.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff feel able to raise concerns without fear and trust that management will act, is one of the most reliable markers of a well-led home and a key predictor of sustained quality.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: how long have you been in post at The Beeches, and how do you let families know if something changes in their parent's health or behaviour between formal reviews?"}

  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 team here cares for people over 65 who need support with dementia or physical disabilities. They understand that each person's needs are different, whether that's help with mobility or the specialised approach that dementia requires.. Gaps or open questions remain on For families dealing with dementia, The Beeches provides dedicated support in a smaller setting. The staff work to maintain each person's dignity while managing the daily challenges that dementia can bring. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.