An expert eye beside you when you view a care home.
We attend the visits with you, ask the professional questions most families do not know to ask, observe what a trained eye notices in twenty minutes, and write up every provider you see so you can compare them fairly rather than from memory.
Visiting a care home is harder than it looks
Almost every care home shows well for an hour. You are met at reception, walked through the pleasant lounge, offered coffee, and shown a refurbished room. It is genuinely difficult to know what you are supposed to be looking at, which questions matter, or how to tell a well-run home from a well-presented one.
Families also tend to visit at their most emotionally exhausted, often under time pressure from a hospital, and frequently after the decision has already half been made. It is not a fair fight.
What having an expert with you changes
A team that has worked inside care services for decades notices different things: how staff speak to residents when they think nobody is listening, whether call bells are being answered or muted, whether people are up and dressed and doing something, whether the drug round is calm or chaotic, whether the manager can answer a direct question about staffing without checking. Those observations are what separate one home from another, and they are almost impossible to gather on your own while also trying to hold a conversation.
You still make the decision
Our job is not to choose. It is to make sure that when you choose, you are comparing homes on what actually matters, with the same questions asked of each, and with an honest written record you can put in front of the rest of the family.
If you cannot be there
We can attend on behalf of families who live at a distance or cannot travel, and provide the full written report followed by a conversation to talk it through. Long-distance families use this constantly.
- You have a shortlist but do not know how to compare the options fairly
- You are visiting alone and would rather not do it alone
- You live at a distance and need somebody to attend for you
- You want a professional opinion before committing to a placement
- You are worried about a relative already living in a home
- The needs are complex and you are not sure the home can really meet them
- You are an attorney or deputy and need a defensible record of the process
What happens on the day, and afterwards
Expert accompaniment
We attend the visit and lead on the detailed questions — staffing, care standards, medication, activities, safeguarding and fees.
On-site observation
The environment, the atmosphere and the interactions between staff and residents — the things that are hard to judge without training.
Written summary report
An honest written assessment of each home visited, rated across key quality indicators, usually within 48 hours.
Comparison and discussion
A conversation afterwards to compare the homes side by side and answer whatever the reports raise.
Written report target: within 48 hours of each visit
Getting something useful out of a visit
Five questions. No email, nothing stored. The result is a short plan for the day, and the questions worth asking.
The questions worth asking in a care home
Useful whether or not you use this service. If you are visiting alone, take this with you.
Staffing
How many staff are on duty on this floor by day and by night, and how does that change at weekends? What is the turnover, and how much agency use is there? Is there a registered nurse on site around the clock, and what happens when they are not? Consistency of staff matters more than almost anything else, particularly for somebody with dementia.
Care standards and clinical management
How is medication managed and recorded? How are falls, pressure areas, weight loss, continence and pain assessed and reviewed? How would the home escalate a deterioration, and how quickly can a GP attend? How often is a care plan reviewed, and is the family involved?
Daily life
Are residents up, dressed and occupied, or is everybody in a chair facing a television? What actually happened yesterday, rather than what the activities board says? Can people get outside? What are mealtimes like, and is anybody being helped to eat properly rather than quickly?
Fees and contracts
What is the weekly fee for this exact level of care, and what is charged separately? Would a third-party top-up be expected, and from whom? How much have fees risen in each of the last three years? What is the notice period, and what happens if needs increase or funding changes?
- Call bells ringing for a long time, or turned off without anybody arriving
- Staff talking over residents rather than to them
- A strong smell, or an unusually strong smell of cleaning products
- Residents in the same chairs at the start and end of your visit
- A manager who cannot give a direct answer on staffing numbers
- Reluctance to let you visit at a different time of day
- Fee information that keeps moving as you ask more precisely
- Recent CQC findings that nobody mentions
From booking to written comparison
Agree the homes
You tell us which providers you want to see. If you do not have a shortlist yet, start with a Care Search Consultation.
Arrange the visits
Appointments are arranged, ideally at a time of day that shows the home as it really runs.
Attend
We visit with you — or on your behalf — and work through the same structured set of questions at each home.
Report and compare
A written report on each home, usually within 48 hours, followed by a conversation to compare them properly.
Assisted Care Home Visits: your questions
Can you visit care homes on our behalf if we cannot attend?
Yes. We regularly attend for families who live at a distance or cannot travel. You receive the full written report and we talk it through with you afterwards by telephone or video.
How many care homes can you visit?
Most families ask us to see two to four shortlisted homes. Visits can be spread across more than one day where that is easier.
How soon after the visit will we receive the report?
Usually within 48 hours of each visit, so that the detail is still fresh and you can act on it.
What areas do you cover for visits?
In-person work is concentrated across East Sussex and the surrounding area — see areas we cover. Visits further afield can sometimes be arranged; ask us.
Do you charge per home or a single fee?
It is a single fixed fee of £2,875 inc. VAT agreed before anything begins, covering the visits, the written reports and the follow-up discussion.
Do you get paid by any home we visit?
No, and this is precisely why the service works. We hold no commercial relationship with any provider, so an honest report costs us nothing.
Can you visit a home where our relative already lives?
Yes. Where there are concerns about current care, that is often better handled as a Care Needs Assessment, which produces a report suitable for raising formally with the provider or the local authority.
What if we decide against all of the homes?
That is a legitimate outcome and a much cheaper one than a placement that fails. We will help you work out what to look for next.
Should we visit more than once before deciding?
Where time allows, yes — ideally at a different time of day, and unannounced if the home permits it. A Tuesday morning and a Sunday afternoon can look like two different places.
Related services
Care Search Consultation
Get the shortlist first — matched providers with availability and real fees.
Care Needs Assessment
Establish exactly what level of care is needed, in writing, before you commit.
Funding Entitlement Check
Make sure you know who should be paying before the fees start.
You don’t need to know which service you need.
Just tell us what’s happening.
No pressure. No care-provider commissions. Just a conversation about what may help.