Working at Highmarket House
North Bar Place, Banbury, OX16 0TD
Operated by Care UK Care Services Limited
73 bedsNursing homes
Workplace Score
4.1/10
AI analysis of latest data
Our AI workplace review
PlainSight AI Review
Last updated: 10 February 2026
Score: 4.1/10
Key Finding
"Staff feel valued with strong teamwork and a varied activity programme, but staffing shortages and safety risks hold it back."
Safety & Risk
2/10
✕
The service was in breach of legal regulations in relation to people’s safe care and treatment. Risks were not always managed; risk assessments were not available for staff regarding use of hot food trolleys... lack of sanitiser... poor fridge and food management.
Staff Culture
6/10
✓
Staff felt valued by their leaders and their colleagues, which had a positive impact on the care they delivered to people. There was a good sense of teamwork and staff told us they worked well together to ensure people’s needs were met.
Staffing Levels
2/10
✕
People were not routinely supported by sufficient numbers of staff who had been deployed to ensure their needs were always met in a timely manner. The service was in breach of legal regulations in relation to staffing.
Training & Dev
5/10
!
Staff told us they had opportunities to have one to one meetings with a line manager and had access to training to ensure their skills and knowledge was updated. Staff had received medicines training, and their competency was assessed.
Management
4/10
!
The registered manager oversight of the service was not always effective, as they had not always had sufficient support to develop and embed their roles and responsibilities. Governance systems had not identified or addressed areas for improvement.
Programmes
6/10
✓
The home had a much appreciated full and varied activity schedule, individual preferences were also taken into account... busy and varied activity schedule including regular minibus trips out of the home.
Points to consider
Not enough staff at times, so care gets delayed and people have to wait longer than they should.
some staff stated that there was a lack of staff sometimes meaning that peoples care was compromised. People and their relatives stated that they thought staff numbers were too low on occasions which has affected the ability of staff to provide care in a timely manner.
Safety risks like hot food trolleys without checks and poor infection control put people and staff at risk.
People were at risk of scalding from hot food trolleys... no risk assessment was in place... more than half of the hand sanitiser stations were not working or empty... fridges were not maintained in a safe way.
Weak management oversight means problems with staffing and safety aren't spotted or fixed quickly.
The provider’s systems and processes did not always identify the concerns we found during our inspection... Governance systems had not identified or addressed areas for improvement.
AI Generated
CQC Inspection Overview
CQC Inspection
Requires improvement
Safe
!
Requires improvement
Effective
✓
Good
Caring
✓
Good
Responsive
✓
Good
Management Quality
Well-led: Requires improvement
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- Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection Data
- PlainSight staff reviews