The Gardens Care Home
Pondfield Close, Darlington, DL3 8LH · Darlington · North East
What the record says
Rated Requires improvement overall.
- Below Good on
- SafeRequires improvement, published 26 Feb 2025Well-ledRequires improvement, published 26 Feb 2025
Verbatim CQC ratings, each dated · data as at 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
- Care type
- Care home with and without nursing
- Beds
- 60
- Registered with CQC
- 18 Nov 2010
- Run by
- Ascot Care North East Limited
- Phone
- 01325487777
Contact details as recorded by CQC — we don’t hold fees, vacancies or waiting lists, so those are worth asking about directly.
Who this service supports
The groups this service is registered with CQC to support. Registration says who a service may care for — it is not a quality judgement, and it is not a recommendation.
Select a group to see other services registered for it in Darlington.
Care home with nursing · Care home without nursing
Looking for services registered for a particular need? Find care that fits in Darlington.
Data as published by CQC to 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
The five key questions
| Key question | Rating | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Safe | Requires improvement | 26 Feb 2025 |
| Effective | Goodrating 3+ yrs old | 24 May 2018 |
| Caring | Goodrating 3+ yrs old | 24 May 2018 |
| Responsive | Good | 26 Feb 2025 |
| Well-led | Requires improvement | 26 Feb 2025 |
Ratings verbatim as published by CQC. Key questions can carry different dates when CQC re-inspects only part of a service.
Data as published by CQC to 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
Same operator — 1 other location
Other active services registered to Ascot Care North East Limited. The verdict above reads across this operator's whole rated portfolio.
| Name | Overall rating (published) | Local authority |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield Lodge Care Home | Requires improvement, published 14 May 2026 | County Durham |
Data as published by CQC to 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
CQC publishes registrations and ratings. It holds nothing at all about fees, current vacancies, staffing levels, or the building itself — there is no field anywhere for door widths, hoists, wet rooms or ground-floor rooms. So no site, including this one, can tell you those. They are worth asking directly — the number is above.
- What are the fees, and what do they not include?
- Do you have a vacancy now, and would you hold a room?
- How many staff are on at night, and how are transfers staffed?
- What change in someone’s needs would mean they had to move, and can I see that in the contract?
More on what to look for and ask on a visit —including what an occupational therapist would check for particular needs — at choosing a care home.
- Take the visit checklistWhat to look for and the questions to ask when you visit — the things a rating cannot tell you.
- Coming out of hospitalIf this follows a hospital stay: the discharge decision, reablement, and what to ask the ward.
- Ask the council for a needs assessmentFree, whatever the savings, and the formal route to arranged care and funding.
- Understand who paysThe means test, what happens to the home, and NHS Continuing Healthcare.
- How to read this ratingWhat the words mean, the five key questions, and why the date matters.
Need this on paper? The single-site diligence pack on The Gardens Care Home adds full rating history, inspection failure themes quoted verbatim, the operator's whole-portfolio record and Companies House linkage — hand-reviewed, every figure dated. £149 · delivered within 48 hours.
See a sample and order →Similar services nearby
Other services in Darlingtonregistered for at least one of the same groups this service supports, listed with the strongest CQC ratings first. A place to look around — not a recommendation, and not an assessment of anyone’s needs.
- Bewick HouseDarlington · 6 bedsOutstanding, published 6 May 2020rating 3+ yrs old
- The AvenueDarlington · 3 bedsOutstanding, published 25 Feb 2020rating 3+ yrs old
- Clervaux TrustDarlington · 3 bedsGood, published 26 Jul 2018rating 3+ yrs old
- Darlington ManorDarlington · 60 bedsGood, published 19 Nov 2020rating 3+ yrs old
- Sector
- Social Care Org
- On CQC’s site
- cqc.org.uk/location/1-116984518
Every rating on this page is shown verbatim as CQC published it, each with its own publication date. Data as at 8 Jul 2026 — as published by CQC, bulk files of 01–08 Jul 2026 · source: CQC · data & methods.