Hi
@Eleanor Smith , and welcome to Dementia Talking Point. You'll find lots of help and advice here.
My mother also has vascular dementia and I moved her into care when her behaviour started putting herself and others at risk. Until then mum had refused all offers of help and was manging to live independently just about with me popping in a couple of times a week and with supportive friends at the end of the phone.
If your mother will be self funding this site
https://www.carehome.co.uk/ may be useful to help you draw up a short list as you will have a wide choice of possible homes. If you need social services to pay, then you may be limited to a much shorter list of places that charge what SS will pay.
We've recently moved my mother in law into care and moved my mother to a different care home near where we now live. Husband and I looked round various homes for both of them and it was obvious that what would suit one would not be the right place for the other. I chose mum's original care home as it was a new 'hotel' style one with a coffee bar, cinema room etc. It also had loads of activities on (this was pre-covid). I thought mum would have a great time joining in everything. As it was she really only joined in if I was there to encourage her, but we still did some fun things, a flash mob dance in the local shopping centre for instance. Mum has now moved on and is in the later stages. Her new home looks very similar to her old one, but she is on a floor where the pace of live is slow and that seems to suit her. Mother in law is a much gentler person than my mum and we felt a large modern home would overwhelm her. She is in a small home in a Victorian house, and doesn't seem to have really noticed she's moved from home. I think it's a bit like choosing a school for your child, look at what is on offer, but make sure the place feels right and will provide what your mum needs.
As for moving area, that shouldn't be a problem if your mum is self-funding. I moved mum using a private ambulance service as we're now a three hour drive from her old home and even if we'd hired a more suitable car than our own for mum to move in neither my husband or I thought we'd be able to manage if she became distressed. It was expensive, but worth it as the guys that moved her were great and the whole thing went so much more smoothly than I thought it would.