Upton House

What families say

Visitors to the home report being welcomed warmly by staff who take time to provide updates about their relatives. Some families have attended events organised by the home, describing these occasions as well-planned opportunities to spend time together.

Based on 8 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
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-05-16 · Report published 2023-05-16 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Safe was rated Good at the April 2025 inspection, representing an improvement from the previous Inadequate period. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to risk. The published summary does not include specific observations about any of these areas. No information about night staffing ratios, agency staff reliance, or falls management is recorded in the available text. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied overall, but the absence of detail means families should ask specific questions.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the foundation of everything else, and the move from Inadequate to Good across the whole inspection is reassuring. That said, our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety problems in care homes most often surface at night, when staffing is thinner and oversight is reduced. For a 20-bed home specialising in dementia, knowing exactly how many permanent staff are on duty overnight is one of the most important questions you can ask. The inspection findings do not answer this, so you will need to ask the manager directly and observe the home at different times of day if possible.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios and reliance on agency staff are two of the strongest predictors of safety failure in dementia care homes. A stable, permanent night team matters as much as daytime staffing.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many staff are on duty overnight on the dementia unit, and how many of those are permanent employees rather than agency workers? Ask to see last week's actual rota, not a staffing template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Effective was rated Good at the April 2025 inspection. This domain covers assessment, care planning, staff training, nutrition, and healthcare access including GP involvement and medicines. The published summary does not include specific detail on any of these areas. No information about dementia training content, care plan review frequency, or family involvement in care planning is available. The Good rating indicates inspectors found standards met, but without specific evidence it is not possible to assess depth.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective means inspectors were satisfied that staff know what they are doing and that care plans are in place. Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans need to be living documents, updated regularly and shaped by the person's changing needs and preferences, not completed on admission and left unchanged. For a home specialising in dementia, the quality of care planning directly affects how well staff understand your parent as an individual. The inspection findings do not tell us how often plans are reviewed or whether families are invited into that process. Ask this question before you sign anything.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review identified that dementia-specific training, particularly in non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches, is one of the strongest predictors of daily care quality. General care training alone is not sufficient for a dementia-specialist setting.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: what dementia-specific training do staff complete, how recently was it last updated, and how often are care plans formally reviewed? Ask whether you would be invited to contribute to your parent's care plan review."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Caring was rated Good at the April 2025 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether residents are supported to maintain independence. The published summary contains no specific observations from the inspection: no inspector notes about staff interactions in corridors or during personal care, no resident testimony, and no relative quotes. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied, but families cannot verify the quality of day-to-day kindness from the published text alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive family reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. These are not abstract qualities: they show up in whether staff knock before entering a room, whether they use your parent's preferred name, and whether they move at your parent's pace rather than their own. The inspection did not record these observations in the published summary, so you need to look for them yourself on a visit. Arrive unannounced if possible, or at a time other than when you told them you were coming, and watch how staff interact with residents in communal spaces.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication, including tone, pace, physical proximity, and facial expression, matters as much as spoken words for people living with dementia. Homes where staff consistently demonstrate unhurried, warm body language tend to have measurably lower levels of distress behaviour.","watch_out":"On your visit, watch what happens when a staff member passes a resident in a corridor or communal area. Do they stop, make eye contact, and use the person's name? Or do they walk past focused on a task? This is one of the most reliable indicators of genuine warmth in daily practice."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Responsive was rated Good at the April 2025 inspection. This domain covers whether the home responds to individual needs and preferences, the quality of activities provision, and end-of-life care planning. The published summary contains no specific information about the activities programme, individual engagement for residents who cannot join group activities, or how the home handles end-of-life planning. The Good rating indicates inspectors found the home responsive overall, but the level of detail available to families is very limited.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness appears in 27.1% of positive family reviews, and activities are mentioned in 21.4%. For someone living with dementia, meaningful engagement is not optional: it directly affects mood, behaviour, and physical health. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that one-to-one activity, household tasks, reminiscence, and sensory engagement, is particularly important for people at a more advanced stage of dementia who cannot participate in group sessions. The inspection does not tell us whether Upton House provides this kind of individual engagement. Ask to see last month's activity records, not just the planned schedule.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that Montessori-based and individual activity approaches, including everyday household tasks, significantly reduce distress in people with advanced dementia. Homes that rely only on group activities leave the most vulnerable residents without meaningful engagement.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator: what would a typical afternoon look like for someone with moderate to advanced dementia who cannot follow group activities? Ask to see the actual activity records from the past four weeks, not the template schedule on the wall."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Well-led was rated Good at the April 2025 inspection, up from the previous Inadequate period. A named registered manager, Mrs Sarah Jane Davis, is in post. This domain covers the quality of leadership, governance, learning from incidents, and the culture that staff and residents experience day to day. The published summary does not include specific detail about how the manager is visible to residents and staff, how incidents are reviewed, or how staff are supported to raise concerns. The improvement from Inadequate to Good in this domain is significant and suggests meaningful change has taken place.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality appears in 23.4% of family reviews, and our Good Practice evidence base is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of long-term care quality. A registered manager in post with an improving trajectory is a positive sign. However, the home has a history that includes an Inadequate rating, and the key question is whether the improvements are embedded or whether they depend on the current manager remaining in post. Ask how long the manager has been in place and what specific changes she has made since the previous inspection. Communication with families is mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews; ask how the home keeps you informed when something changes for your parent.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that homes with stable, visible leadership and a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear consistently perform better over time. Bottom-up empowerment, where care staff feel heard by management, is a reliable predictor of sustained quality.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post, what were the main problems identified in the previous inspection, and what specific changes have you made to address them? Then ask a care worker the same question in a different way: ask what they would do if they were worried about something at work."}

  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 Upton House provides residential care for adults over 65, with particular experience in supporting people living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on Several families describe their relatives with dementia becoming noticeably more settled after moving to Upton House. Staff are reported to understand the importance of responding to each person's changing needs throughout the day. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.