The Cottage Residential Care Home
The Cottage Residential Care Home is a care home in Colchester, run by Mr Roy Bellhouse. CQC rated it Inadequate overall in September 2025 (last checked 15 September 2025). It has 10 beds. It is registered to support people living with dementia, people with a physical disability, people with a learning disability or autism and people with mental health needs.
- Care home without nursing
51 High Street, Brightlingsea, Colchester, Essex, CO7 0AQ
What CQC says
Overall rating
The service is performing badly.
Down from Good, 11 December 2018.
Last checked by CQC: 15 September 2025.
The five key questions
CQC rates each service on five questions. Each has its own rating.
Is it safe?
Inadequaterated 1 year ago (15 September 2025)Is it effective?
No rating for this question.
Is it caring?
No rating for this question.
Is it responsive to people’s needs?
No rating for this question.
Is it well-led?
Inadequaterated 1 year ago (15 September 2025)
Not sure what the ratings mean? Read how CQC ratings work.
Understanding this rating
Plain facts about how CQC rates and inspects services, as CQC describes them. This is not advice and not a rating of ours.
What CQC looks at
Safe: Inadequate
CQC checks whether people are protected from abuse and avoidable harm. It looks at safeguarding, how risks are managed, staffing levels and training, medicines, and keeping the place clean to stop infections.
Questions you could ask
- How are medicines looked after and given on time?
- How do you decide how many staff are on duty, day and night?
- When something goes wrong, what do you do, and how do you tell families?
Well-led: Inadequate
CQC checks how well the service is run. It looks at the managers and leaders, the culture, how the service checks and improves its own quality, and whether staff feel able to speak up.
Questions you could ask
- Who is the registered manager, and how can families contact them?
- How do you check the quality of care yourselves?
- How can staff raise worries, and how are they supported when they do?
How often CQC looks again
There is no fixed timetable. CQC decides when to look at a service again. It uses the information it holds about the service and how much risk it sees. It may look sooner if it hears of concerns.
Earlier ratings
Overall ratings this service had before, newest first. These are CQC’s own earlier ratings.
- Good11 December 2018Read the report (opens in a new tab)
- Inadequate22 March 2018Read the report (opens in a new tab)
- Requires improvement13 April 2016Read the report (opens in a new tab)
About this service
- Type of care
- Care home without nursing
- Who it supports
- Dementia, Physical disability, Learning disability or autism, Mental health needs
- Number of beds
- 10
- Nursing care
- No, personal care only
- Registered since
- 14 January 2011
- Local council area
- Essex
Who runs it
- Provider
- Mr Roy Bellhouse
- Kind of provider
- Individual