The Cedars Care Home in Methley isn’t just a care home that provides specialised dementia support - it’s also a place where researchers are looking into how to improve dementia care and come up with new ways to provide care and support to people living with dementia.

NICHE-Leeds - short for Nurturing Innovation in Care Home Excellence in Leeds - is a University of Leeds care home research initiative which uses the ‘living lab’ model to identify areas where care could be improved, and how. The ‘living lab’ model is about connecting researchers' academic knowledge and skills with the skills and experience of frontline care home staff to improve care.

Westward Care has been working with NICHE for a few years now, with The Cedars one of the Westward Care locations where NICHE academics have been carrying out their vital research.

Most recently, Westward Care and NICHE have worked together on exploring how people’s living environment can be improved for residents who live with dementia, and how to ensure recruitment of the most appropriate staff through the STAR (Situational Tests for Attracting and Recruiting) project. Our work has also contributed to the DACHA (Developing resources And minimum data set for Care Homes’ Adoption) study.

Though a primary goal of our collaboration with NICHE is to improve life for residents and staff in Westward Care locations, the project could ultimately impact approaches to care - including dementia care - far beyond Leeds.