The Old Vicarage Residential Home

What families say

Families describe a gracious setting where staff take time to help during those first overwhelming days. There's a sense that people here understand the emotional weight of placing someone in emergency care, and they work to ease that burden through consistent, thoughtful attention.

Based on 5 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth75
• Compassion & dignity90
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement70
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness72

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-12-20 · Report published 2022-12-20 · Inspected 6 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The safe domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This means inspectors were satisfied that safety systems, staffing, medicines management, and infection control met the required standard. The published summary does not include specific observations about falls prevention, night staffing numbers, or how the home manages medicines for people with dementia. The home has been inspected six times since registration, and the current Good rating follows a Requires Improvement overall rating in December 2022, suggesting improvement has been made.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a baseline you need, but it does not answer the questions that matter most at night. Good Practice research consistently shows that night staffing is where safety risks concentrate in care homes, yet it is rarely described in detail in published inspection summaries. For a 24-bed home supporting people with dementia, knowing how many permanent staff are on duty after 8pm, and how often that shifts to agency cover, is one of the most important things you can find out. Our family review data shows that 14% of positive reviews specifically mention staff attentiveness as a reason families feel their parent is safe, which is a different kind of evidence from a compliance rating.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, March 2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the clearest predictors of inconsistent safety in small care homes, because people with dementia rely on familiar faces to feel secure and to communicate when something is wrong.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, not the template. Count how many named permanent staff worked night shifts and how many were agency. For a 24-bed home, you would want to see at least two carers on nights with continuity of names across most shifts."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The effective domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, nutrition, and how well the home applies its knowledge to each individual. The published summary does not include specific detail about dementia training content, how often care plans are reviewed, or how the home supports people with changing nutritional needs. A Good rating means inspectors were satisfied with the overall standard, but the detail behind it is not available in the published report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families of someone with dementia, the effective domain matters because it determines whether staff understand what your parent is experiencing and whether their care plan reflects who they actually are, not just their diagnosis. Our family review data shows that 12.7% of positive reviews specifically mention dementia-specific care as a reason families feel the home understood their parent. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed at least monthly for people with advancing dementia, with family input at each review. The published findings do not confirm whether this happens here, so it is a direct question worth asking.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that regular, structured GP access and care plan reviews that actively include family members are among the strongest predictors of good health outcomes for people with dementia in residential care.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often care plans are formally reviewed, who is involved in those reviews, and whether you would be invited. Then ask to see the training records for dementia care: specifically, what training staff have completed, who delivered it, and when it was last updated."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The caring domain was rated Outstanding at the January 2025 inspection. This is the highest possible rating and is achieved by fewer than one in ten care homes in England. Inspectors award Outstanding only when they find specific, evidenced examples of care that goes significantly beyond expected standards in areas such as dignity, respect, compassion, and genuine person-centred practice. The published summary confirms this rating but does not include the specific observations, quotes, or examples that inspectors used to reach it. The full inspection report, available directly from the Care Quality Commission website, is likely to contain that detail.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and genuine compassion and dignity follows closely at 55.2%. An Outstanding caring rating is therefore the finding most directly connected to what families say matters most. It suggests that inspectors found something beyond routine kindness: staff who know your parent as a person, who respond to distress in ways that help rather than manage, and who protect dignity in private moments as well as public ones. This is worth exploring on a visit by watching how staff speak to residents in corridors and communal spaces, not just when they know they are being observed.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication is as important as verbal interaction for people with advanced dementia, and that homes rated Outstanding for caring consistently demonstrate staff who adapt their communication style to the individual rather than following a script.","watch_out":"When you visit, arrive without announcing yourself if possible, or arrive at a time when care is happening rather than during a scheduled activity. Watch whether staff make eye contact, use your parent's preferred name, and move without hurry. These are the observable signals that sit behind an Outstanding caring rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This covers how well the home responds to individual needs, including activities, engagement, complaints handling, and end-of-life care. The published summary does not include specific detail about what activities are offered, whether one-to-one engagement is available for people who cannot join groups, or how end-of-life wishes are documented and honoured. A Good rating indicates the home meets expected standards in these areas.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is one of the eight themes families mention most in our review data, cited in 27.1% of positive reviews, and activities and engagement are cited in 21.4%. A Good responsive rating is encouraging, but for someone with dementia, the question is not just whether there is an activities programme but whether your parent can actually access it. Good Practice research identifies individual, tailored engagement as significantly more effective than group-only activities for people with mid-to-late stage dementia, and Montessori-based approaches, which use familiar household tasks to create purpose and connection, are among the strongest-evidenced models. The published findings do not confirm whether the home uses approaches like this.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that one-to-one activities tailored to a person's life history, even brief, daily interactions using familiar objects or tasks, produce measurable improvements in wellbeing for people with dementia who can no longer engage with group sessions.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator, not just the manager, what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident who cannot or does not want to join the main group activity. If the answer is vague, or if the response is that the person can watch from their chair, push further and ask what one-to-one time is built into the weekly schedule."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2025 inspection. This covers management culture, governance, accountability, and whether staff feel supported to raise concerns. The home is run by Bakewell Vicarage Care Home Limited, with Miss Sharon Agutter as the nominated individual. The published summary does not include specific detail about the registered manager's tenure, how long the current leadership team has been in place, or how the home acted on the Requires Improvement rating it received in December 2022. The move from Requires Improvement to Good overall, with an Outstanding caring domain, suggests meaningful improvement has occurred under current leadership.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership is cited in 23.4% of positive family reviews, and Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in small care homes. A home that has moved from Requires Improvement to Good, with an Outstanding caring domain, in roughly two years is showing a positive direction. That said, the published findings do not tell you how long the current manager has been in post, or whether the improvement is embedded or still fragile. Communication with families, cited in 11.5% of positive reviews, is also something the published summary does not address, and it is directly connected to how well-led a home actually feels from a family's perspective.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that homes where managers have been in post for more than two years, and where staff report feeling able to raise concerns without fear, consistently outperform homes with frequent leadership changes, even when headline ratings are similar.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post, and ask what specifically changed between the December 2022 Requires Improvement inspection and this one. A confident, specific answer about what was identified, what was done, and how it is now monitored is a strong signal of embedded leadership. A vague answer is a reason to probe further."}

  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 supports residents with various needs including physical disabilities and sensory impairments. They care for both younger adults under 65 and older residents.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the team here provides specialised support, though specific approaches and programmes aren't detailed in current feedback. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.