Jesmund Nursing Home

What families say

What strikes families is how staff here form genuine bonds that last. People talk about carers who remember the little things over months and years, creating connections that go beyond routine care. There's a sense that residents are truly known here, not just looked after.

Based on 5 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-02-21 · Report published 2019-02-21 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. This domain covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and safeguarding. No specific inspector observations, staffing ratios, or details about how incidents are managed are included in the published findings. The home holds a nursing specialism, which means a registered nurse is expected to be on duty, but shift patterns and night cover numbers are not published. For a 25-bed home with dementia and mental health specialisms, these details matter.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but our Good Practice evidence base consistently finds that night staffing is where safety most often slips in smaller nursing homes. For a 25-bed home, one nurse and two carers overnight would be a reasonable minimum to expect, but this was not confirmed in the published findings. Agency staff reliance is another risk factor: homes that rely heavily on agency cover have less consistent knowledge of individual residents, which matters especially for people with dementia who may not be able to communicate distress clearly. You cannot verify either of these things from the published report alone, so a direct conversation with the manager is essential.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that learning from incidents, including falls, near-misses, and medication errors, is one of the most reliable markers of a genuinely safe home. Ask whether the home holds regular safety huddles and whether family members are told when an incident involving their parent has occurred.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the template rota. Count how many shifts were covered by agency or bank staff, and ask specifically how many members of staff are on duty in the dementia unit after 8pm."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. This domain covers care planning, dementia training, healthcare access, food and nutrition, and the use of evidence-based practice. No specific detail about any of these areas is included in the published report. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which sets an expectation of trained, knowledgeable staff, but no training records, care plan examples, or GP access arrangements are described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Families tell us in our review data that dementia-specific care, cited in 12.7% of positive reviews, and food quality, cited in 20.9% of positive reviews, are among the things they notice most. A Good Effective rating suggests the basics are in place, but without specific examples you cannot tell whether care plans are genuinely personal or whether mealtimes are a positive experience. Good Practice evidence is clear that care plans should be living documents, updated after every significant change in your parent's condition, and reviewed at least monthly for people with advancing dementia. Ask to see a sample care plan, with personal details removed, to judge whether it reflects the individual or reads as a generic template.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that meaningful inclusion of family members in care plan reviews improves both the accuracy of the plan and family confidence in the home. Homes that treat care plan meetings as a formality rather than a genuine conversation tend to produce plans that do not reflect the person.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often care plans are formally reviewed, and whether you would be invited to take part. Then ask to see the current menu for this week and find out whether the chef or care staff have met the residents to understand individual preferences, textures, and cultural dietary needs."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. No inspector observations of staff interactions, no resident quotes, and no relative feedback are included in the published report. Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews, so the absence of specific evidence here is the most significant gap in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Caring rating is the most important domain rating for most families, and 55.2% of positive reviews in our data specifically mention compassion and dignity as the reason they would recommend a home. The problem is that a Good rating without specific observations tells you very little about what it actually feels like to live here. Good Practice research is clear that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal communication for people with dementia: whether a carer kneels to speak at eye level, whether they pause before entering a room, and whether they use a calm tone all signal whether a home has genuinely internalised person-centred values. These are things you can observe yourself during a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that knowing the individual, including their history, their preferred name, their triggers, and their routines, is the foundation of person-led care. Homes where staff can describe a resident's life before dementia tend to provide measurably warmer daily interactions.","watch_out":"During your visit, stand in a corridor for ten minutes and observe how staff pass residents. Do they make eye contact, smile, and use the resident's preferred name? Do they move at a pace that feels unhurried? These small signals are more revealing than anything a manager will tell you in a meeting."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. This domain covers activities and engagement, individual care, and end-of-life planning. No detail about what activities are offered, how they are tailored to individuals, or how the home approaches end-of-life care is included in the published findings. For a home with dementia and mental health specialisms, the approach to one-to-one engagement for people who cannot participate in group activities is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement are cited in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness, which activities directly support, is cited in 27.1%. For people with dementia, group activities are often not enough: Good Practice evidence consistently shows that tailored one-to-one activities, including familiar household tasks, sensory activities, and life-history work, are more effective at reducing distress and maintaining wellbeing than a standard weekly programme. A Good Responsive rating suggests the home understands this in principle, but without specific examples you cannot tell whether it happens in practice. Ask to see the activity schedule from last week, not a future plan.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based approaches and everyday purposeful tasks, such as folding laundry or tending plants, produce significant improvements in engagement and mood for people with moderate to advanced dementia, particularly when group participation is no longer possible.","watch_out":"Ask the activities co-ordinator, not the manager, to describe what a typical Tuesday looks like for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions. If the answer focuses only on group activities, that is a signal that one-to-one engagement may not be consistently resourced."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2026 inspection. Two registered managers are named: Ms Crisanta Marasigan and Miss Parul Priyanka Modha. Mr Praveen Modha is listed as the nominated individual. Having two registered managers at a 25-bed home is unusual and worth exploring, as it may reflect a transition, a shared arrangement, or a planned change. No information about manager tenure, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home handles complaints is included in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Our Good Practice evidence base found that leadership continuity, particularly a manager who has been in post for more than two years and who is known to both staff and residents by name, is associated with better outcomes across every other domain. The listing of two registered managers is not a concern in itself, but it is worth asking directly who is the day-to-day lead, how long they have been in post, and whether any significant staffing changes have happened recently. Management (23.4%) and communication with families (11.5%) are both themes that families in our review data care about, and neither can be assessed from the published report alone.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that homes where frontline staff feel able to raise concerns without fear of reprisal consistently outperform those with more hierarchical cultures, even when the overall inspection rating is the same. Asking a carer, not a manager, whether they feel heard is one of the most informative questions a family can ask on a visit.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in this role, and who was in post before you? Then, if you get the opportunity to speak to a carer privately, ask them what they would change about how the home is run. The willingness to answer honestly, not the content of the answer, tells you a great deal about the culture."}

  Verified by inspector

Source: CQC inspection report →

What the evidence base says

Against the DCC Good Practice in Dementia Care standards, this home’s evidence aligns most strongly on Jesmund provides nursing care for younger adults under 65 as well as older residents, with particular expertise in dementia and mental health conditions.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home runs weekly activities designed for people living with dementia, helping residents stay engaged in ways that work for them. Staff seem to understand how to connect with residents whose communication needs have changed. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.