Enter and view: Kingsley House

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Summary of report content

Healthwatch Gloucestershire visited Kingsley House in May 2026 and found a friendly, welcoming care home where residents generally spoke positively about staff, care, food and activities. The home was praised for its person-centred approach, community links, multidisciplinary working and efforts to gather feedback from residents and families. Most residents and the relative interviewed expressed high levels of satisfaction with the care provided. 

The visit also identified opportunities to improve the physical environment, particularly for residents living with dementia. These included better signage, more dementia-friendly visual cues, additional clocks and calendars, further personalisation of some bedrooms, and improvements to the basement area. Concerns were also raised about non-emergency transport cancellations affecting residents attending hospital appointments. 

Key Findings

  • Staff were consistently described as friendly, caring and supportive by residents, relatives and visitors. 
  • Residents had access to a range of activities, outings and community engagement opportunities. 
  • Food was generally well regarded, with residents offered meal choices and plans in place to increase freshly prepared meals. 
  • The home actively sought feedback through care planning meetings, comment boxes and resident engagement initiatives. 
  • Several areas could be made more dementia-friendly, including signage, contrasting colours, clocks and orientation aids. 
  • Basement bedrooms and staff facilities would benefit from refurbishment and increased personalisation. 
  • Repeated cancellations of non-emergency patient transport created difficulties for residents attending hospital appointments. 

Conclusion

Healthwatch concluded that Kingsley House provides a positive and caring environment with strong staff-resident relationships and good person-centred care. Recommendations focused mainly on improving dementia-friendly design features, upgrading parts of the building, enhancing orientation aids and addressing transport challenges. The provider responded positively and reported that many of the recommended improvements had already been implemented or were underway. 

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General details

Local Healthwatch
Healthwatch Gloucestershire
Publication date
Key themes
Building, Decor and Facilities, including health and safety
Caring, kindness, respect and dignity
Cleanliness, Hygiene and Infection Control
Communication with patients; treatment explanation; verbal advice
Consent, choice, user involvement and being listened to
Food, nutrition and catering
Lifestyle and wellbeing; wider determinants of health
Patient/resident safety
Service organisation, delivery, change and closure
Staffing - levels and training

Methodology and approach

Was the work undertaken in partnership with another organisation?
No
Primary research method used
Observation (eg Enter and View)
If an Enter and View methodology was applied, was the visit announced or unannounced?
Not Known

Details of health and care services included in the report

Details of health and care services included in the report
Care home

Details of people who shared their views

Number of people who shared their views
25
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