Richmond Villages Reviews 17

My experience with Richmond Villages Willaston has been deeply disappointing and distressing.

As the son of a resident, I have experienced repeated difficulties in maintaining contact with my mother, both by telephone and in person. On numerous occasions I have been asked to call back at specific times, only to find that calls were not answered or I was unable to speak with her. This has left me feeling excluded and frustrated.

Communication from management has often been inconsistent. Decisions affecting contact with my mother have not always been explained clearly, and I have found it difficult to obtain straightforward answers to reasonable questions.

I have also encountered situations where different members of staff appeared to provide different explanations regarding arrangements and decisions, creating confusion and making it difficult to understand what was actually happening.

Throughout this process, I have felt that my concerns as a close family member were not treated with the seriousness or compassion that I would have expected. Rather than feeling supported, I often felt dismissed.

I appreciate that caring for residents with complex needs is challenging and that safeguarding responsibilities must be taken seriously. However, those responsibilities should be accompanied by transparency, consistency, and respectful communication with family members.

My overall impression is of a service that appears disorganised in its communication and decision-making processes. I sincerely hope improvements can be made so that other families do not experience the same difficulties.

Warning! to any one considering letting your relatives move into this home. Please avoid this company. They treat the family members terribly and the staff continually lie. I'm in the process of taking them to court so please take this warning seriously and never let your loved ones stay here.

I visited aston clubhouse for the first time on Saturday and we were impressed. The staff were very helpful with getting us iced water and the cakes were fab. Definitely going to visit again

My mother has been a resident at Richmond Aston on Trent for many years. She bought a lovely but very expensive flat in independent living. The gardens were lovely. There was a shop. Good access to facilities for which she was charged £500pm until local residents were allowed to pay much less for access to use all the facilities so swimming, hairdressing appointments etc. became more difficult to get. There were outings arranged every Wednesday in village minibuses but no traffic light system to warn of stairs etc
When she needed a mobility scooter she found there was no covered area to charge and leave her scooter.
The shop closed. The minibuses were sold. She sold the flat at a huge loss and moved into assisted living. Not wishing to buy another apartment, she rented one but it was too small to accommodate her mobility scooter. She was informed that she could not park it outside her door. Food and cleaning were provided but everything else cost extra money e.g £8 to put ointment in her eye.
As her health failed she needed care but there is no guarantee of a place in the care home as patients are also taken from outside. Eventually after weeks of stress a space became available. Dom care did everything they could to make her comfortable during those weeks waiting. The care home Dovedale, provides functional care but she has had to get used to intimate care being provided by both sexes. The decoration is lovely, the carers are lovely but there seems to be constant staff shortages so a call on her buzzer can take ages to be answered, mistakes are made constantly e.g leaving her with no water, providing only a knife for a boiled egg, forgetting a plate for toast and the food is poor e.g. incapable of providing a soft boiled egg and food is rarely hot once it arrives. Her care needs have increased but the care provided is poor e.g I arrived to find her asleep in her chair, covered in sick. A carer had arrived, given her a kidney bowl and left with no follow up for what may have been hours. We received no follow up to our obvious complaint.
The carers can't take residents outside, the activities team only offer structured activities and there is little co-ordination between them so despite warm weather she remains in her room. Carers can't take her, activities team dont. My mother can't hear or see properly any more so is left to sit in her chair all day with no stimulation and no fresh air.
We do take her out but much of the garden is now overgrown with weeds. There is no weekly outing, few activities that she can do. She made friends there but has become isolated from them in the care home (£5 fee to eat downstairs and that is dependent on whether a carer is available to take her down there, leave her and later collect her).
The promises made by the sales person of an easy transition from independent living to assisted living to care home did not match up in reality. The care in the care home is dependent on the 111 service for any emergencies. The staff are lovely but always seem overworked. The result is my mother sitting in a chair all day, often without water, either staring at a TV she can't see or sleeping. My mother is entirely dependent on these people but can wait ages to be got out of bed, rarely gets a shower and calls for the bathroom can mean a long wait. This increases the likelihood of developing sores.
Visiting is difficult with a tiny space for cars and only 1 disabled bay. A previous area was built on to provide more flats for sale. This also resulted in all resident's social activities (Rummikub, cards etc.) being moved to the new building which she could not navigate in her scooter and struggled to walk to. A new cafe was provided but Assisted Living residents were not allowed to eat there without paying extra.
The village could be so much better. Shutting the shop to provide a staff room was wrong. Those going into Assisted Living should be made fully aware that no care will be provided without additional expensive charges for basic care. They should also be made aware that if they need the care home there may not even be a space for them at the time. There should be a regular visit from a GP to care home residents. Access to fresh air and stimulation should be a regular part of their care. Staff levels should be increased to allow carers to respond to buzzers more quickly and to spend more time with residents.
Proper processes from the kitchen to Dovedale should ensure food arrives hot with correct cutlery and menus should be improved to be healthy and enticing.
The decoration is opulent, the carers themselves are lovely with her but we view the standard of care in the care home to be poor and we are left with the feeling that corporate profit seems to take priority over all else, including the welfare of the residents.
Would not recommend

Our mother spent the last 3 years of her life at the Cheltenham village in Hatherley Lane.
For much of the time she had a self contained flat, eventually moving into a room with constant nursing care.
We can honestly say that we will miss our visits to Richmond Village. Without exception, the staff have been welcoming and sensitive to Mum's needs. They have a great understanding of dementia care and also terminal care.
Mum's face lit up when many of the staff approached her and she felt it was a home from home.
Nothing was too much trouble for staff and we recommend Richmond Village for anyone considering later life care.

With regards to Richmond Villages Bede, Bedworth

Leaving 1 star only because 0 stars is not an option

I would not wish the facility on my worst enemy. Do not send your loved ones here, the service our family received was awful, and when we complained we received a response with no apology, no indication that things would change in future and no regret for the stress that our family suffered.

The management at this Home should be ashamed of themselves and I hope no other family has to suffer what we did.

My wife and I recently visited Richmond Retirement Village in Letcombe Regis as part of an Open Day and were most impressed by the superb facilities and how professional the staff were, not to mention the very tasty food

I recently stayed at Painswick and couldnt fault it. The facilities were excellent .. the food was first class and the staff were lovely and very helpful..

Our mother was a resident in an assisted living apartment in Richmond Village Witney for just over 2 years.
Every staff member looked after our mother so well . They were caring, polite and extremely friendly .
Overall we would thoroughly recommend the assisted living apartments.

My experience was visiting a relative in the Dementia unit. ( placed there on a nursing decision not due to cognition - this WAS agreed with NOK.
Relative had capacity for all significant and daily decisions. Evident staff required training on safeguarding processes/ procedures with regard to capacity and being patient centred.

I did try and address issues however response I had verbally contradicted written response . No explanation of this.
Defensive and inadequate review process.
Far too much emphasis on decor and appearances. Money would be far better spent on staff numbers, retention and training.

Moved into an independant living apartment in January at Richmond, Bede Village. After three months beginning to settle in and wished we had moved here years ago. The staff are so friendly and helpful. The other residents equally make you feel most welcome. There are events laid on each day, for those willing to partake you will wonder where the time goes. The surrounding are very nice and the gardens are perfectly maintained.

Richmond Villages Nantwich is a fantastic facility. The residents are really well cared for and nothing is too much trouble for the staff. I make regular visits to the home as a singer and the reception from everyone has always been exemplary. There is a sense that the residents engage with one another and the staff as though they are family. They are very happy and all in all it's a wonderful environment.

We have our weekly meetings at Richmond Village and the staff couldn't be more helpful and accommodating. We recently organised an event there and the team gets 110% for flexibility, hard work, value for money and a great welcome. Highly recommended.

I moved to Richmond Village Aston on Trent almost six years ago now. It has turned out to be all that I expected and I have no regrets. Is it perfect? No, but what is. Their care duringCovid and Lockdown was exceptional with catering available and entertainments organised for our own particular apartments. Not one occupant of any part of the Village caught Covid and then an independent liver whose daughter brought it in. No Covid deaths at all. The biggest blot is one grumpy resident who complains all the time about all and everything, never joins in with anything and just causes trouble. I expect any similar establishment has one. Currently insisting on keeping two parking spaces even though he has only one car. Means one less parking space for visitors. there's always one! 14th Feb 2023 (the date box below doesn't work.)

A warning to all guest users of the Richmond Village Wellness Spa in Witney. They will ask you for a large deposit on your spa day and it will take them about 2 mins to take the payment. But when they cancel the day due to staff illness they are less keen to refund you. Nearly a month later and I am still waiting for my refund and no amount of polite requests seem to get me anywhere near my money. My advice would be not to give any up front money to this organisation.

My mother moved to the Richmond earlier this year. Since then the building work has finished and the new cafe has opened. My mother has said she feels like she has been made really welcome, by both the staff and existing residents. The cafe food and drink has been superb when we have visited and there was a lovely atmosphere at the recent summer fair event.