Sunnyside Nursing Home

What families say

Visitors often mention feeling properly welcomed when they arrive. Staff take time to chat with families, not just during official visits but whenever they drop by. People appreciate how the team helps maintain those vital connections between residents and their loved ones.

Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2023-11-17 · Report published 2023-11-17 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The safe domain was rated Good at the October 2023 inspection. Beyond this rating, the published report does not include specific observations about staffing numbers, medicines management, falls records, or infection control practices. The home is registered to provide nursing care, which means qualified nurses should be present, but no detail on nurse cover at night is included. There is no information in the published findings about agency staff use or how incidents are logged and acted upon.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but it is the starting point rather than the full picture. Our review data shows that families most often notice safety through how quickly staff respond when someone needs help, not through inspection ratings alone. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety most often slips at night, when staffing is thinner and oversight is lower. Because the published report gives no specifics on night cover or agency use for Sunnyside, you need to ask these questions directly. For a 40-bed nursing home with a dementia specialism, you should expect at least one qualified nurse on duty throughout the night.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing ratios and reliance on agency staff are among the strongest predictors of safety incidents in care homes. Consistent, familiar staff matter particularly for people with dementia, who can become distressed when they do not recognise the people caring for them.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not a template. Count how many permanent staff were on night shifts compared to agency cover, and confirm whether a qualified nurse was present throughout every night."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The effective domain was rated Good at the October 2023 inspection. The published report does not include detail on training records, care plan content, GP access arrangements, or how food and nutrition needs are assessed and met. The home lists dementia as a specialism, but no information is provided about the specific dementia training staff receive or how care plans are tailored to individual history and preferences.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home with a dementia specialism means more than meeting basic care standards. It means staff who know your parent as a person, care plans that reflect their life history and daily routines, and reliable access to GP and other health services. Food quality, which accounts for 20.9% of what families highlight in positive reviews, is also part of this picture. Because none of these areas are described in the published findings, the Good rating here reflects compliance with the regulatory standard rather than a detailed account of practice. Ask to see how dementia care is actually delivered before drawing conclusions.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated regularly and co-produced with families. Dementia-specific training, including communication techniques and recognition of pain in people who cannot self-report, is associated with measurably better outcomes for residents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training all staff complete, including domestic and catering staff, and when it was last updated. Then ask how often care plans are reviewed and whether families are invited to take part in those reviews."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The caring domain was rated Good at the October 2023 inspection. No specific observations of staff interactions, dignity practices, or resident testimony are included in the published report. There is no recorded evidence of how staff address residents, whether care is delivered without rushing, or how privacy is maintained during personal care. The absence of detail is not a sign of poor practice, but it does mean the Good rating cannot be unpacked further from the published findings alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity account for a further 55.2%. These are the things families notice most on a visit, and they are also the things least visible in a short inspection. The published report gives no specific examples of kind or respectful interactions at Sunnyside, so you cannot rely on the rating alone here. What you can do is spend time in a communal area on your visit and watch how staff speak to people, whether they knock before entering rooms, whether they use preferred names, and whether they move at the pace of the person they are with.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base confirms that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken words for people with dementia. Staff who crouch to eye level, make calm eye contact, and use a steady tone of voice produce measurably lower levels of distress in residents, even in later stages of the condition.","watch_out":"On your visit, find a moment when a member of staff is helping someone who did not ask for help. Watch whether the staff member explains what they are doing, uses the person's name, and waits for a response before continuing. That interaction tells you more than any rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The responsive domain was rated Good at the October 2023 inspection. The published report includes no detail about the activities programme, how individual preferences are recorded and acted upon, or how the home supports people with advanced dementia who cannot participate in group activities. End-of-life care planning and how the home responds to complaints are also not described in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness, which appears in 27.1% of positive family reviews, depends heavily on whether your parent has things to do and people to talk to that connect with who they are. Activities engagement accounts for 21.4% of what families value most. A home with a dementia specialism should be able to describe not just a group activities timetable but also how they keep someone with advanced dementia engaged one to one, whether through music, familiar household tasks, or simply a calm presence. The published findings do not tell you any of this for Sunnyside, so it is a critical area to explore on your visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies Montessori-based approaches and familiar everyday tasks, such as folding, sorting, and simple cooking activities, as particularly effective for people with dementia who can no longer follow structured group sessions. Individual engagement, not group programming alone, is the marker of genuinely responsive care.","watch_out":"Ask to see last week's actual activity record, not the planned timetable. Then ask specifically what happens for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot join group sessions. If the answer is that staff spend individual time with them, ask how that is scheduled and recorded."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The well-led domain was rated Good at the October 2023 inspection. A registered manager, Miss Victoria Roseann Casciello, is named in post, and Mr Khaled Gamiet is listed as the nominated individual. The published report does not include information about how long the manager has been in post, how governance and quality assurance are carried out, or how staff are supported to raise concerns. No detail on the home's culture or management visibility is included.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality accounts for 23.4% of what families value, and our review data shows that a visible, approachable manager is closely linked to families feeling informed and confident. The Good Practice evidence base notes that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of a home's quality trajectory: homes where managers stay tend to improve, and homes with frequent management changes tend to drift. The published findings confirm a manager is registered but do not tell you how long they have been in post or how embedded they are in daily life at Sunnyside. This is a straightforward question to ask on your visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that staff who feel able to raise concerns without fear, and who see management act on what they report, are associated with consistently better resident outcomes. Bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff are trusted to flag problems early, is a reliable marker of a well-led home.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post at Sunnyside, and ask whether there have been any significant staffing changes in the past six months. Then ask one or two staff members you meet informally whether they feel comfortable raising a concern if they spotted something wrong."}

  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 Sunnyside provides care for adults both under and over 65, with specific experience in dementia support.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home's dementia care approach includes helping residents maintain connections with their personal history through familiar objects and photographs. Staff work to create an environment where people living with dementia can feel secure and valued. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.