Tollesby Hall Nursing Home
At a Glance
The information you need to decide whether this home warrants a closer look.
Nursing homes
Staff warmth score
of reviewers answered yes
Good to know
- Registered beds55
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Caring for adults under 65 yrs, Dementia, Physical disabilities, Sensory impairment
- Last inspected2023-06-20
- Activities programmeResidents enjoy a varied menu with options to suit different dietary needs. The home organises activities like bingo and painting sessions, plus trips out to local gardens and the seaside. Bedrooms can be personalised with familiar possessions and photos.
- Visit Website
The Evidence
What the review data, the inspection reports, and the dementia-care evidence base tell us about this home.
What families say
Families describe staff who treat residents as individuals, building genuine connections that go beyond basic care tasks. During difficult end-of-life journeys, the team supports both residents and families with sensitivity, allowing overnight stays and keeping everyone informed about care decisions.
Based on 15 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10
The eight family priority themes
- Staff warmth72
- Compassion & dignity72
- Cleanliness72
- Activities & engagement65
- Food quality65
- Healthcare72
- Management & leadership75
- Resident happiness70
What inspectors found
Inspected 2023-06-20 · Report published 2023-06-20 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. This covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. The previous Requires Improvement rating meant that safety had been a concern, and inspectors were satisfied it had been addressed by the time of this inspection. No specific observational detail is reproduced in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating after a period of Requires Improvement is worth taking seriously, but it does not tell you everything you need to know. Good Practice research highlights that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that reliance on agency staff can undermine the consistency that people with dementia need. The published findings do not specify night staffing ratios or agency use for Tollesby Hall, so these are questions you need to ask directly. Our family review data shows that safe environment features in 11.8% of positive reviews, often described in terms of staff attentiveness rather than formal safety systems.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety incidents in care homes are disproportionately concentrated in night shifts and periods of staff changeover. Knowing the actual numbers on duty overnight is one of the most practical safety checks a family can make.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not a template. Count how many permanent carers and senior staff were on duty overnight across the 55-bed home, and ask how that number changes at weekends or during holiday periods."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, nutrition, and access to healthcare professionals. Dementia is listed as a specialism for the home. No specific findings about training content, care plan quality, food provision, or GP access are included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating means inspectors were satisfied that the home had the knowledge and systems to deliver appropriate care, but without specific detail it is difficult to know how that translates to your parent's daily experience. Food quality features in 20.9% of positive family reviews, and the Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should evolve as a person's dementia progresses. Ask specifically about dementia training: what it covers, how recent it is, and whether it includes communication approaches for people who have lost verbal language. These details matter more than the headline rating.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia-specific training, particularly in non-verbal communication and person-centred approaches, significantly improves the quality of daily interactions. A home can be rated Good on Effective while still varying considerably in how deeply staff understand dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see the training log for dementia care and find out when frontline carers last completed refresher training. Ask specifically whether training covers communication with people who can no longer use words reliably."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect for privacy, and how well staff know the people they support as individuals. No direct observations, specific examples, or quotes from residents or relatives are included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is encouraging, but what families consistently tell us is that the real signal is in the small moments: whether a carer uses your parent's preferred name, whether they knock before entering a room, whether they stop to listen rather than hurrying on to the next task. The inspection did not record specific observations of this kind in the published text, so you need to watch for these things yourself on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies non-verbal communication as equally important to spoken interaction for people with advanced dementia. Staff who can read and respond to body language and facial expression provide meaningfully better care, and this is observable on a visit even if you cannot assess it from a report.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how staff greet your parent or other residents in communal areas. Do they make eye contact, use names, and pause to engage? Or do they move through the space without stopping? This tells you more about the caring culture than any document will."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. This domain covers activities and engagement, whether care is tailored to individuals, and how the home supports people at the end of life. No specific information about the activities programme, individual engagement, or end-of-life care arrangements is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement feature in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness, closely linked to meaningful occupation, features in 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with more advanced dementia: one-to-one engagement and activities rooted in a person's own history and interests make a measurable difference to wellbeing. The published findings do not confirm whether Tollesby Hall provides this level of individual engagement. Resident happiness is one of the areas where a visit gives you far more information than a rating alone.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research review found that Montessori-based and life-history approaches to activity, including familiar everyday tasks, produced significantly better engagement outcomes for people with dementia than standard group activity programmes. Ask whether the home uses any structured individual engagement approach.","watch_out":"Ask to visit at a time when activities are running and observe who is actually participating. Then ask specifically how staff engage residents who are in their rooms, anxious about groups, or at a more advanced stage of dementia where group activities are not accessible."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the October 2025 inspection. The home is registered with two named registered managers and a nominated individual, suggesting a structured leadership arrangement. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good across all domains indicates that leadership responded to earlier concerns. No further detail about management culture, staff empowerment, or governance systems is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and leadership feature in 23.4% of positive family reviews, and communication with families features in 11.5%. Good Practice research consistently shows that leadership stability predicts quality over time: homes with a settled, visible manager tend to maintain standards more reliably than those with frequent change. The presence of two registered managers at Tollesby Hall raises a practical question about who your day-to-day point of contact would be and how responsibilities are divided. This is worth clarifying before your parent moves in.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline carers can raise concerns and see them acted on, is one of the strongest predictors of sustained care quality. Ask whether staff feel comfortable raising concerns and how the home demonstrates that feedback leads to change.","watch_out":"Ask which of the two registered managers would be your named point of contact, how long each has been in post, and how the home handled the concerns that led to the previous Requires Improvement rating. A specific, confident answer is a good sign; a vague one is worth probing further."}
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 The home caters for adults of all ages with physical disabilities, sensory impairments and complex nursing needs. Round-the-clock qualified nurses provide specialist care for conditions requiring close medical supervision.. Gaps or open questions remain on Staff support residents living with dementia alongside other complex health conditions. The team works to maintain each person's dignity and comfort as their needs change. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.
The DCC Verdict
Our editorial view, built from the three lenses: what families tell us, what inspectors record, and how the home sits against good dementia-care practice.
DCC Family Score
Tollesby Hall Nursing Home has moved from a Requires Improvement rating to Good across all five domains at its most recent inspection in October 2025. The score reflects genuine positive progress but is moderated by limited specific detail in the published findings, meaning there is more to verify directly with the home.
Homes in North East typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
Families describe staff who treat residents as individuals, building genuine connections that go beyond basic care tasks. During difficult end-of-life journeys, the team supports both residents and families with sensitivity, allowing overnight stays and keeping everyone informed about care decisions.
What inspectors have recorded
The nursing team brings experience in managing complex medical conditions, from heart problems to palliative care needs. Staff pay attention to the details that matter, working to keep residents comfortable and maintain their dignity through challenging health situations.
How it sits against good practice
Understanding what matters most in nursing care takes time — why not arrange a visit to see if Tollesby Hall could be the right fit for your family?
Worth a visit
Tollesby Hall Nursing Home, on Slip In Bank in Middlesbrough, was rated Good across all five inspection domains at its most recent assessment on 20 October 2025, with the report published in December 2025. This is a meaningful improvement: the home had previously declined to Requires Improvement, so returning to Good across every domain suggests that leadership identified what was wrong and addressed it. The home is registered for 55 beds and cares for people over and under 65, including those living with dementia, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment. The main uncertainty here is that the published inspection summary provides domain ratings but very little specific observational detail, direct quotes, or named examples of good practice. That makes it harder to paint a clear picture of what daily life actually looks like for your mum or dad. When you visit, ask to see the full inspection report, request a walk-through of the dementia unit at a time when activities are running, and speak directly to a carer rather than only to a manager. Pay particular attention to how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas, whether the pace feels unhurried, and how the home responds to your questions about night staffing and agency cover.
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In Their Own Words
How Tollesby Hall Nursing Home describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Where nursing expertise meets genuine warmth for complex care needs
Dedicated nursing home Support in Middlesbrough
When your loved one needs skilled nursing care, finding somewhere that combines medical competence with real compassion feels crucial. Tollesby Hall Nursing Home in Middlesbrough provides round-the-clock nursing for residents with complex health conditions, including dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. The home welcomes both younger adults and those over 65, creating a community where different generations live alongside each other.
Who they care for
The home caters for adults of all ages with physical disabilities, sensory impairments and complex nursing needs. Round-the-clock qualified nurses provide specialist care for conditions requiring close medical supervision.
Staff support residents living with dementia alongside other complex health conditions. The team works to maintain each person's dignity and comfort as their needs change.
Management & ethos
The nursing team brings experience in managing complex medical conditions, from heart problems to palliative care needs. Staff pay attention to the details that matter, working to keep residents comfortable and maintain their dignity through challenging health situations.
The home & environment
Residents enjoy a varied menu with options to suit different dietary needs. The home organises activities like bingo and painting sessions, plus trips out to local gardens and the seaside. Bedrooms can be personalised with familiar possessions and photos.
“Understanding what matters most in nursing care takes time — why not arrange a visit to see if Tollesby Hall could be the right fit for your family?”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
