A HIGHWORTH care home has been rated as one of the best in the south west.

Grove Hill Care Home was ranked in the top 20 care homes in the region by carehome.co.uk - a review website that helps people search for the right care home.

Residents as well as their relatives and friends posted their reviews online and Grove Hill beat off stiff competition from over 2,000 care homes in the south west to make the top 20.

Proprietor and manager, James Dunn, said he was absolutely delighted to hear the news.

“The residents and their representatives are thrilled their quality, holistic care has been recognised by the award," he said.

"The staff team are ecstatic that their hard work has also been recognised.

“What is lovely is that it is despite an awful lot of criticism about care homes in the national media, we have been able to show that our residents are happy here and so are their families.

“Rather than the regulator who puts through the paperwork, this review is from the residents and their families and so we are very pleased by the result.

“There are three assets to the success of a care home. The first is the residents, and I say residents because they are not patients. The second is the staff and lastly the building itself. The staff have a dedicated attitude to their work and they are long-standing which is important because then the residents have continuity."

The glowing recommendation for Grove Hill Care Home comes just two months after the Care Quality Commission honoured the staff's dedication to residents by awarding them ‘good’ rating following an inspection.

Swindon's only other care home in the top 20 was Fitzwarren House.

James added: “To have this news is a great morale boost and recognition that we must be doing something right.”

Plans are now underway for a party to celebrate the news with families and residents.

Davina Ludlow, director of carehome.co.uk, said: “We feel the best people to rate a care home are the residents and their families and friends. Their reviews reveal that many care homes are warm and happy places to live, where staff go that extra mile to ensure residents have a good quality of life and feel cared for.

“Grove Hill Care Home proved that they provide a high standard of care and we’d like to congratulate them on being a top 20 care home in south west england. It’s a wonderful achievement to be recognised for being a highly recommended home by the very people you care for.

“Finding the right care home can be so hard. We hope that our awards will help to make people’s care home search that little bit easier.”