The questions families askwhen they’re exploring a placement.

Families are not kept at arm’s length at Ridgewood. You are invited into the admissions meeting, the reviews, and the everyday life of your relative where appropriate. Care plans are shared. Awkward questions are welcome — over the phone or over a cup of tea at the home.

Each service user has a named keyworker — the support staff member whose job is to know their daily life and preferences in the most detail. You can ask to speak to the keyworker directly, not only to home managers.

Daily life is not a timetable of fillers. Service users access local colleges (daily living skills, cookery, computing), outdoor activities including cycling, carriage-riding and horse-riding, plus Pilates, yoga, drama and music. Many contribute to animal care on the Crockstead Farm estate. Social life goes properly into the community — the pub, the cinema, the bowling alley — not just around the home.

Each home has suitable vehicles to support service users’ use. We encourage and promote the use of local public transport where appropriate. Service users contribute to petrol costs from their mobility allowance, at the level awarded.

Crockstead Farm Supported Living carries a unique asset from COVID-era planning: separate but related on-site suites for family visits and placement transitions. We retain those arrangements because they turn out to matter — a visit should be calm, not rushed.

Ridgewood is not registered to provide nursing care. We will tell you plainly if a specific need falls outside what we are registered or equipped for, and we’ll help point you in a better direction where we can.