The Cottage
Heath Farm, Heath Road, Lincoln, LN4 3JD · Lincolnshire · East Midlands
What the record says
Rated Good overall, but Well-led is Requires improvement (18 Jan 2024), and the rating is 2 years old.
- Below Good on
- Well-ledRequires improvement, published 18 Jan 2024
- Age of rating
- 2 years old — published 18 Jan 2024. CQC has not re-inspected since; a re-inspection could move it in either direction.
- Operator's wider portfolio
- All 9 of Autism Care (UK) Limited's rated services are Good or better. See the operator.
Verbatim CQC ratings, each dated · data as at 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
- Care type
- Care home without nursing
- Beds
- 10
- Registered with CQC
- 23 Dec 2010
- Run by
- Autism Care (UK) Limited
- Part of
- Lifeways Community Care · 115 services
- Phone
- 01526322444
- Website
- www.autismcareuk.com
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 Lincolnshire.
Care home without nursing
Looking for services registered for a particular need? Find care that fits in Lincolnshire.
Data as published by CQC to 8 Jul 2026 · source: CQC
The five key questions
| Key question | Rating | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Safe | Good | 18 Jan 2024 |
| Effective | Goodrating 3+ yrs old | 23 Aug 2018 |
| Caring | Goodrating 3+ yrs old | 23 Aug 2018 |
| Responsive | Goodrating 3+ yrs old | 23 Aug 2018 |
| Well-led | Requires improvement | 18 Jan 2024 |
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 — 9 other locations
Other active services registered to Autism Care (UK) Limited. The verdict above reads across this operator's whole rated portfolio.
| Name | Overall rating (published) | Local authority |
|---|---|---|
| Autism Care (Grantham) | Good, published 16 Jun 2022rating 3+ yrs old | Lincolnshire |
| Autism Care (Lincoln) | Good, published 11 Feb 2023rating 3+ yrs old | Lincolnshire |
| Autism Care Community Services (Lincolnshire) | Not yet rated | Lincolnshire |
| Autism Care Community Services (Milton Keynes) | Good, published 21 Jun 2023rating 3+ yrs old | Milton Keynes |
| The Barn | Good, published 5 Jun 2024 | Lincolnshire |
| The Croft | Good, published 4 Jan 2024 | Lincolnshire |
| The Farmhouse | Good, published 13 Nov 2025 | Lincolnshire |
| The Holt | Good, published 30 Jan 2025 | Lincolnshire |
| The Paddocks | Good, published 18 Oct 2019rating 3+ yrs old | Lincolnshire |
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 Cottage 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 Lincolnregistered 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.
- An Caladh HouseLincoln · 10 bedsOutstanding, published 16 Mar 2019rating 3+ yrs old
- Eagle House Residential Care HomeLincoln · 40 bedsOutstanding, published 4 Jun 2025
- Orchard LodgeLincoln · 6 bedsOutstanding, published 15 Nov 2019rating 3+ yrs old
- The HawthornsLincoln · 9 bedsOutstanding, published 9 Apr 2020rating 3+ yrs old
- Sector
- Social Care Org
- On CQC’s site
- cqc.org.uk/location/1-145212060
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.