Brewster House

Oak Road, Heybridge, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4AX

01621853960

Care Type

Residential Care

Assessment date

7 February 2024

Provider

Runwood Homes Limited

Beds

74 beds

About Brewster House

Brewster House is a residential care home in Essex, providing personal care to older people, including those living with dementia. Details of the CQC's most recent findings are set out below.

Brewster House is a residential care home providing personal care to older people, including those living with dementia. The CQC carried out a responsive assessment and rated the service Requires Improvement overall. Inspectors found three breaches of regulations relating to safe care and treatment, safeguarding and governance, with medicines and risks to people's safety not always managed effectively.

Despite these concerns, feedback from people and relatives was generally positive. Staff were described as kind and caring, people felt safe, and staffing levels were considered adequate. However, the provider's governance systems had not always identified or addressed areas needing improvement.

Source: CQC assessment, 27 June 2024

Specialist Care

DementiaOlder peoplePhysical disabilitiesSensory impairmentsYounger adults

Fees and availability

We have not verified a current weekly fee for this home. Ask for a written quote based on the room and care needed, including any extra charges.

Check current vacancies, the admission assessment and visiting arrangements directly with the home.

Care and inspection details

Checked against the CQC register on 20 September 2026. This is a check of published information, not a visit to the home.

Registered service: Care home service without nursing
Registered capacity: 74 places — this is not a vacancy count
Registration checked: Registered · CM9 4AX

Registered care categories

Caring for adults over 65 yrs; Caring for adults under 65 yrs; Dementia; Physical disabilities; Sensory impairment.

These describe the registration. The home must assess whether it can meet the individual person's needs and whether a place is available.

CQC ratings in more detail

Overall rating shown by CQC: Requires Improvement.

Assessment published 27 June 2024. Assessment date recorded: 7 February 2024.

Read CQC's assessment overview

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 27 June 2024. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

Brewster House is a residential care home providing personal care to older people, some of whom are living with dementia. We completed this assessment from 23 April to 26 April 2024. This was a responsive assessment, covering 10 quality statements. We looked at Learning culture; Safeguarding; Involving people to manage risks; Safe and effective staffing; Medicines optimisation; Kindness, compassion and dignity; Independence, choice and control; Equity in experiences and outcomes; Governance, management and sustainability and Partnerships and communities. We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding and governance. The provider had not always managed people’s medicines safely. Risks to people’s health and safety had not always been managed effectively. People were not always protected from the risk of abuse. The provider’s governance systems and audits were not always effective in identifying and addressing areas of concern.

Safe: Requires Improvement
Effective: Good
Caring: Good
Responsive: Good
Well-led: Requires Improvement

Questions prompted by these ratings

Safe: What changes have been made to medicines, staffing and safeguarding since this rating?
Well-led: What has changed in management, checks and oversight since this rating?

These are questions for your visit, not a claim about conditions today.

Read Brewster House's CQC record and reports.

Contains Care Quality Commission information under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Ratings and registration details can change after the date checked.

5 Questions to Ask on Your Visit

When visiting Brewster House, consider asking...

1.What specific dementia training do staff receive and how recently?
2.How do you support a resident who becomes distressed or confused?
3.How does the home keep a record of a resident's life history and personal preferences?
4.How do you involve families as dementia progresses and communication becomes harder?
5.What happens when a resident's dementia reaches an advanced stage?

5 Things to Look For on Your Visit

When you visit Brewster House, look out for...

1.Is the environment calm, uncluttered and easy to navigate?
2.Do staff speak to residents with patience and dignity, even if they repeat themselves?
3.Are there memory cues around the home -- photos, familiar objects, clear signage?
4.Do residents seem settled and safe, or agitated and unsupervised?
5.Is there meaningful activity happening, or are residents just sitting quietly with nothing to do?

Could the NHS fund Brewster House's fees?

The average nursing home costs £1,535 per week. That's £79,820 a year. NHS Continuing Healthcare could cover all of it. No means test, no contribution from you.

Find out if the NHS could fund these fees