Oak Cottage Care Home Hatfield
CQC Overall Rating: Requires Improvement (Inspection: 8 November 2023; report published 17 February 2024) Care Quality Commission
- Safe: Requires Improvement Care Quality Commission
- Effective: Requires Improvement Care Quality Commission
- Caring: Good Care Quality Commission
- Responsive: Good Care Quality Commission
- Well-led: Inadequate Care Quality Commission
🏡 Accommodation & Facilities
- Address: 4 Wilkins Green Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9RT. HousingCare+3Care Quality Commission+3Oak Cottage Care+3
- Provider: Oak Cottage Care Limited. Registered Manager & Nominated Individual: Miss Marie Rebecca Joelle Theanne. Care Quality Commission
- Capacity: ~25 beds. Care Sourcer+1
- Rooms: ~20-25 rooms — many single, some en-suite rooms (only 4 en-suite as per CareSourcer listing). Care Sourcer
- Layout: Older building (opened ~1987) with wheelchair access, lift; garden / grounds. Residents may bring own furniture; some pets allowed by arrangement. Care Sourcer+1
🩺 Care Services Offered
- Specialises in Residential care, Dementia care, and Respite care. Autumna+2Care Sourcer+2
- Accepts adults over 65 and under 65; supports people with mental health conditions. Care Quality Commission+2Autumna+2
✅ What Oak Cottage Does Well
- Strengths in Caring & Responsive domains: Residents are treated with kindness; staff generally responsive to day-to-day needs. Care Quality Commission
- Good feedback around being homely, family-run atmosphere. Smaller scale helps more personal touches. Oak Cottage Care+1
- Offers dementia & respite care, so it covers a range of care needs. Autumna+1
⚠ Areas to Check / Where Improvements Needed
- Well-led is Inadequate: serious concerns about leadership, governance, and oversight. Care Quality Commission
- Safe & Effective domains both Require Improvement: risk assessments, staff training, consistency in safe care practices flagged. Care Quality Commission
- Only a few rooms are en-suite, meaning that some residents may have shared facilities — check whether the room you’d get is appropriate. Care Sourcer
- Being a smaller home with older infrastructure, maintenance & environment may vary; some parts may feel older.
- Because of the size, staff numbers / continuity might be stretched during staff shortages — would be good to ask about staffing at different times.
📝 Summary
Oak Cottage is a small, family-run care home in Hatfield offering residential, dementia, and respite care. It has strong points: caring staff, responsiveness, homely environment, smaller scale. However, its latest CQC report shows several domains requiring improvement, especially leadership and safety. For someone considering it, it could be suitable — especially for moderate care needs — provided you visit, see the state of care, infrastructure, staff involvement, and verify that the issues flagged in the CQC report are being addressed.
