What to Look For When Visiting a Care Home
When visiting a care home, the most important things to look for are how staff interact with residents, staffing levels and turnover, whether residents appear engaged and well cared for, and how the manager responds to direct questions. A scheduled tour tells you part of the story, an unannounced visit or a visit at mealtime tells you the rest.
Last updated: March 2026
Brochures and websites can be polished to perfection. A visit tells you the truth. This guide covers everything to look out for — from the moment you arrive to the questions to ask before you leave.
Before You Visit
Book at Different Times
Most care homes will invite you for a scheduled tour. Take it, but also try to visit unannounced, or at a different time of day — early evening, a weekend morning, or around lunchtime.
Mealtimes in particular are worth observing. They're one of the most revealing moments in a care home's day, and they're sometimes less polished than a formal tour.
Look at the CQC Report First
Before you visit, read the home's latest inspection report on the CQC website. It's free and publicly available. Know what the inspector found before you walk through the door — it gives you specific things to look out for and questions to ask.
Go With a List
It's easy to be swept up in the tour and forget what you came to find out. Write your questions down beforehand. You'll be glad you did.
What to Notice When You Arrive
The Entrance and Reception
First impressions aren't everything, but they're something. A care home doesn't need to be luxurious, but it should feel clean, warm, and welcoming.
Notice: Is there a smell? A faint smell of cleaning products is fine. A strong smell of urine or stale air is a red flag. Does it feel lived-in and homely, or cold and institutional?
Is there someone to greet you promptly, or are you left waiting while staff seem distracted or rushed?
The Building and Communal Spaces
Walk through the communal areas. Are they being used? Are residents sitting together, watching something, engaged in an activity — or are they lined up in chairs facing a television, unstimulated?
Are residents dressed appropriately for the time of day, and in their own clothes rather than generic clothing? Are they clean and well-presented?
Is there outdoor space, and does it look accessible and used?
Check that the home is accessible — corridors wide enough for wheelchairs, grab rails in the right places, call bells within reach.
The Bedrooms
Ask to see a typical room, not just a show room. Is it personalised — photographs, familiar objects, the person's own furniture if they want it? Or is it bare and functional?
Is there enough storage? Good lighting? A comfortable chair? Can residents control their own heating?
Ask whether residents can lock their rooms, and whether personal belongings are secure.
What to Observe About the Staff
How They Interact With Residents
This is the single most important thing to look at. Watch how staff talk to residents — not just in the formal tour but when they don't realise you're watching.
Good signs
- • Staff crouch down to speak to residents at eye level
- • They use the person's name
- • They make eye contact
- • They slow down and give time
- • They speak warmly, not in a patronising singsong voice
Red flags
- • Staff talking over residents or about them as if they aren't there
- • Hurrying through care tasks without explaining
- • Addressing residents by room number or condition rather than name
- • Ignoring residents who are trying to get their attention
How Many Staff Are Around
During your visit, note how many staff you see and how many residents are in communal areas. Are staff stretched thin, moving at a sprint, or do they seem to have time to stop and chat?
Ask about staffing ratios — how many carers per resident during the day, and at night. There's no legal minimum, but the CQC looks at whether staffing levels match the needs of residents.
Ask about staff turnover. High turnover is one of the strongest predictors of poor care. If the home has consistent staff who know the residents well, that's a very good sign.
Agency and Bank Staff
Ask how often agency staff are used. Some use of agency or bank staff is normal for covering sickness and holidays. Heavy reliance on agency staff — particularly at night — means residents are regularly being cared for by people who don't know them.
Questions to Ask the Manager
The manager sets the tone for the whole home. A good manager will be happy to answer your questions directly and honestly. Someone who deflects, gets defensive, or gives you brochure-speak is telling you something.
About the home generally
- • What's your occupancy level at the moment?
- • What's your staff turnover rate?
- • How do you handle it when a resident's needs change significantly?
- • How do you communicate with families about day-to-day changes?
- • What would a typical day look like for my relative?
About care planning
- • How do you get to know a new resident's preferences, routines, and history?
- • How often are care plans reviewed?
- • Who is involved in care planning — do residents and families have a say?
About safety
- • How do you manage medication? What's your audit process?
- • What's your approach to falls prevention?
- • How do you handle incidents — what happens after something goes wrong?
About the last inspection
- • What did the CQC find, and what have you done about it?
- • Is there anything you're still working on?
A manager who can answer that last question honestly — who can tell you what the issues were and what they've changed — is a manager worth trusting.
Questions to Ask the Residents
If you get the chance, talk to residents. Ask them how they find it, what they enjoy, whether there's anything they'd change. Their answers (or their body language if they can't easily communicate) will tell you more than any tour.
Talk to families too if you see them visiting. They'll often give you a candid view that the home won't.
Things to Check at the End of the Visit
The Activities Programme
Ask to see the activities schedule. Is it varied? Are there things going on most days? Does it look like it's actually used, or like it was printed for the purposes of the inspection folder?
Ask how activities are tailored to individual interests. A home that knows which residents love music, which ones like to garden, and which ones prefer one-to-one time with a carer is doing activities properly.
The Menu
Ask to see a sample weekly menu. Is the food varied and appropriate? Ask what happens if a resident doesn't like what's on offer. Good homes will offer alternatives without making a fuss.
Ask about mealtimes — are they flexible, or does everyone eat at the same time regardless of preference?
The Complaints Process
Ask how to raise a concern if something isn't right. A home that has a clear, confident answer — here's the complaints policy, here's who to speak to, here's what happens next — is a home that takes concerns seriously.
A home that seems awkward at this question is a home that doesn't welcome scrutiny.
The Contract
Before you leave, ask for a copy of the contract and the fee structure. Make sure you understand what the weekly fee includes and what's charged as an extra. Some homes include hairdressing, chiropody, and outings. Others charge for everything on top of the base fee.
Ask what happens to fees if the person's needs increase significantly and they need a higher level of care.
Trusting Your Instincts
You can tick every box and still leave with a nagging feeling that something isn't right. Or you can visit a home that isn't Outstanding on paper and feel immediately that it's warm, kind, and real.
Instinct matters. Care is fundamentally about human relationships. The way a care worker speaks to an elderly resident with dementia, the way a manager responds when a family raises a concern, the way a home feels when you walk through the door at 8 in the morning — these things are hard to measure but easy to feel.
Visit more than once. Bring someone else with you. And trust what you sense as much as what you see.
A Quick Checklist for Your Visit
Arrival
- ☐ Is it clean, warm, and welcoming?
- ☐ Is there an unpleasant smell?
- ☐ Are you greeted promptly?
Communal areas
- ☐ Are residents engaged and occupied?
- ☐ Are residents dressed and well-presented?
- ☐ Is there accessible outdoor space?
Staff
- ☐ Do staff interact warmly and respectfully?
- ☐ Is there enough staff visible?
- ☐ Do staff know residents as individuals?
Rooms
- ☐ Can you see a typical room?
- ☐ Is it personalised and homely?
- ☐ Is there adequate space, light, and storage?
Questions answered
- ☐ Staffing ratios and turnover
- ☐ Care plans and reviews
- ☐ What happens after an incident
- ☐ Response to last CQC inspection
- ☐ Activities programme
- ☐ Menu and mealtime flexibility
- ☐ How to raise a complaint
- ☐ What the fee includes
Gut feeling
- ☐ Would you feel comfortable leaving your relative here?