Come at half past twelve. That is the honest hour.
Lunchtime on a weekday is when a care home is busiest and hardest to stage, which is exactly why we suggest it. You will eat at a table with the people who live here, you may walk into any room except a resident’s, and you may ask any member of staff how long they have worked for us. You do not have to book at all — between 8am and 8pm you can simply arrive — but booking means the manager keeps the half hour free and the kitchen lays an extra place.
That’s booked. Nothing else to do.
You will get a text within the hour confirming the time and the address, and a name for who is meeting you. Then we will leave you alone until you arrive.
If something changes, ring the home directly rather than the main office — it is quicker. Ashcombe is 01565 741 204 and The Wren is 01565 741 206. And if you want to bring a brother or a daughter along, just bring them; the kitchen will cope.
Read the fee page while you waitNobody will chase you
One confirmation, then silence. Choosing a care home takes families five weeks on average and being rung on day three does not speed it up.
You can just turn up instead
8am to 8pm, any day of the year, including Christmas Day. No appointment, no signing-in book. Honestly, this is the better test.
Or ring and speak to a person
01565 741 200 reaches a manager, not a call centre. Seven days a week, 8am to 8pm.
What actually happens on the day
An hour, and no brochure
We have deliberately not built a tour. A tour is a route chosen by the home, which is the opposite of what you need.
Somebody meets you
By name, at the front door, within a minute. There is no reception hatch and no visitors’ book. If the manager is tied up, the deputy comes instead and you are told which is happening.
You walk where you want
Including the corridors we would rather you skipped, the sluice, the laundry and the staff rota on the wall. Open any door except a resident’s. Photograph the rota if you like.
You eat lunch
Two courses, three choices, at a table with residents rather than in a side room. Bring whoever you want. This is the entire sales pitch and it takes about forty minutes.
You go home and we stop
No call on day three, no “just checking in” email, no offer that expires on Friday. When you are ready you will ring us, and if you never do that is a perfectly good outcome too.
Use these on us first
Nine questions worth asking, and two that most homes cannot answer
Families arrive without knowing what to ask, which is entirely reasonable because most of them have never done this before. Here is the list we would use ourselves. Ask them here, then ask them at the next three homes and compare the pauses.
- What is the weekly fee for this specific room, and what is not in it?
- Does the fee rise if needs increase? Ask them to say it twice.
- Do you charge third-party top-ups on council placements?
- How long has the registered manager been here? And the deputy?
- What is your staff turnover, as a percentage, for last year?
- How many agency shifts did you use last month?
- How many residents are on an antipsychotic, and who reviews it?
- What did the last CQC report ask you to improve, and is it done?
- May I see the staffing rota on the wall, and may I photograph it?
The last two are the ones that produce the pause. Our answers, today, are: medication audit sign-off and care-plan clarity in the Garden Household, both closed by January; and yes, it is on the wall in every household with photographs, and yes, photograph it.
Before you come
Practical things about visiting
Bring her, if she is well enough for the journey and wants to come. About half of families visit once alone and then come back with the person themselves, which we think is the right order — you can look at the sluice and ask the awkward questions on your own, and then she can look at the garden and eat the lunch.
If she has dementia and a first visit is likely to be frightening, say so on the form and Rachel will suggest how to do it. Sometimes the answer is that she comes for lunch three times before anyone mentions moving in.
Really free, and bring them. Two courses with a choice of three mains, at a table with residents rather than in a private room. There is no charge for a visitor’s meal here at any time — not on a first visit and not once someone has moved in, which is a thing a surprising number of homes bill for.
If there are more than four of you, tell us on the form so the kitchen knows, and if there are more than eight of you we will put you at the long table in the garden room.
Do. It is genuinely the better test and we would rather you did it than not. Any day of the year between 8am and 8pm, no appointment, no notice, no signing-in book. Half past twelve on a weekday is the hour we would choose if we were you.
The only thing you lose by not booking is a guaranteed half hour with the manager, because he may be in a review meeting. Whoever is on will show you round, and that is arguably a purer test anyway.
About an hour if you stay for lunch, and around twenty-five minutes if you do not. There is no fixed route, so it depends how much you want to look at.
You will not be walked out. If you want to sit in the drawing room for an hour afterwards and watch what happens, do. Two or three families a year sit in on a whole afternoon, and it is the single best thing they could do.
Ring 01565 741 200 and say so, and it goes straight to a manager rather than into the enquiry queue. We hold a same-week admissions line for Wythenshawe, Macclesfield and Leighton.
We can assess on the ward within three working days, usually sooner, and our fastest admission this year was eleven days from first call — considerably faster where a discharge is blocking a bed. Rachel or Marcus will tell you honestly whether we can meet the need, including when we cannot.
No. Never have. There is no deposit, no admission fee and no holding charge, and we will not sell you a room that might be free in five weeks.
If you decide you want a room that is currently occupied, you go on a list with the names of everyone else on it, we tell you how many are ahead of you, and we ring you when it is real.
Or skip all of this and simply ring.
A manager answers, seven days a week, 8am to 8pm. Not a call centre, not a receptionist, and not somebody working from a script who has never been inside the building.