Colten Care celebrates ten years in the ‘UK Top 20’ based on independent ratings

Colten Care is celebrating its tenth year in the ‘Top 20’ of large care home groups in the UK.

Colten Care has reached the milestone after more than 2,000 independent ratings by residents, families and community contacts posted on the public review site Carehome.co.uk.

And in a further boost, its Chichester home Wellington Grange has just become the provider’s tenth home to achieve a maximum ten-out-of-ten score.

Of these, two homes, Belmore Lodge in Lymington, Hampshire, and Newstone House in Sturminster Newton, Dorset, are also given individual Top 20 ratings in their respective regions.

The other ten-out-of-ten homes are: St Catherines View in Winchester, Woodpeckers in Brockenhurst and fellow Hampshire homes Court Lodge in Lymington and Kingfishers in New Milton; and in Dorset, Bourne View in Poole, Avon Cliff in Bournemouth and Amberwood House in Ferndown.

To explore more of our homes, visit care homes in Hampshire and care homes in Dorset.

Carehome.co.uk defines ‘large’ groups as those with 20 or more homes. Colten Care has 21, seven of which are rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission with the rest rated Good.

Our continuing Top 20 placing follows 2,015 reviews with 341 of them posted in the past two years. Its group rating is 9.9 out of ten.

The latest review of Wellington Grange, from Stephen, the son of a resident, reads: “The warmth, professionalism and genuine compassion shown by every member of staff has made a world of difference not only to my mother but myself. The care team treat every resident with respect, patience and kindness which has built a good relationship with my mother. Wellington Grange is modern, spotlessly clean and well maintained. There is a sense of home from the lounges and cafés to the beautiful garden. My mother is happy there which makes me happy.”

Colten Care Chief Executive Mark Aitchison said: “As a public review site, Carehome.co.uk is there to demonstrate evidence of third party or independent endorsement. Our consistently high group score has now given us ten years at the top. And having ten homes at 10/10 further strengthens our claim to be the UK’s highest-rated care home group for our size.”

Mark added that the achievement is particularly remarkable given that all 21 Colten Care homes are registered for nursing care and four are dedicated to dementia care with Admiral Nurse support. “We see professional nursing as fundamental to the delivery of elderly people’s care,” he said.

Mark’s comments are echoed by Colten Care’s Chief Operating Officer Elaine Farrer, an experienced nurse leader and manager and a registered nurse herself, who said: “Our success comes as more and more people recognise that preparing for care in older age is more important than ever. That’s because people currently aged 80 or more are the fastest growing segment of the population.

The number of people in that age group is set to double to more than six million over the next 40 years. It is growing fastest in many rural and coastal areas where the proportion of older people is already higher. This is certainly the case in Colten’s heartlands in rural and coastal locations in the south. The prevalence of increased frailty and medical need obviously increases with age so the importance of Colten homes offering nursing, unlike many other providers, becomes more and more relevant.”