Cliff House Nursing & Residential Care Home

What families say

Families describe staff who take time to chat with residents and relatives, making everyone feel heard. There's a warmth here that comes through in the everyday interactions between carers and residents.

Based on 9 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth50
• Compassion & dignity50
• Cleanliness50
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare50
• Management & leadership55
• Resident happiness50

What inspectors found

Inspected 2018-12-11 · Report published 2018-12-11

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The safe domain was rated Good at the November 2018 inspection. The published report does not include specific observations about staffing ratios, medicines management, falls prevention, or how the home learns from incidents. No concerns were flagged, but the level of published detail is limited. A July 2023 desktop review found no new evidence of safety concerns.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but the thin published detail means you cannot rely on it alone when choosing a home for your parent. Good Practice evidence is clear that night staffing is where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that heavy reliance on agency staff undermines consistency for people living with dementia. With 40 beds and a dementia specialism, you need to know the actual overnight staffing numbers before you can properly assess safety here. The inspection findings do not give you that information, so you will need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett, 2026) identifies night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance as the two most consistent predictors of safety incidents in care homes supporting people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent carers and how many senior staff are on duty overnight for the 40 beds? Then ask what proportion of night shifts in the last month were covered by agency staff."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The effective domain was rated Good in November 2018. The published report gives no specific detail about dementia training content, care plan quality, GP access arrangements, or how food and nutritional needs are managed. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies some level of specialist knowledge, but no training records or qualification details were published.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home with a dementia specialism means your parent's care plan should read like a biography, not a checklist. It should capture preferred names, daily routines, food preferences, and what makes your parent feel calm or distressed. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be reviewed regularly with family involvement. The published inspection gives no evidence that this level of detail exists here, so you need to ask to see a blank example care plan and find out how often reviews take place.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) found that care plans treated as living documents, updated with family input at least quarterly, are a consistent marker of better outcomes for people living with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: can you show me what a completed care plan looks like here, and how would you capture my parent's daily routines and personal history before they move in?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The caring domain was rated Good at the November 2018 inspection. No specific observations about staff warmth, preferred names, privacy, or the pace of care were included in the published summary. No resident or relative testimony was recorded in the published text. A Good rating in this domain indicates inspectors found no concerns at the time of the visit.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews across more than 5,000 UK care homes. It is also the thing families find hardest to judge from an inspection report alone. Because the published findings here contain no specific observations about how staff interact with residents, you need to assess this yourself on a visit. Watch for whether staff use your parent's preferred name, whether they move without hurry, and whether they acknowledge your parent before speaking to you.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research identifies non-verbal communication, including unhurried pace, eye contact at the resident's level, and use of preferred names, as equally important as verbal interaction for people living with dementia who have limited spoken language.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch a mealtime or a care interaction for at least 15 minutes. Notice whether staff sit down with residents, use their preferred names, and wait for a response before moving on."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The responsive domain was rated Good in November 2018. The published report includes no detail about the activity programme, one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join groups, outdoor access, or end-of-life planning. With a specialism in dementia, the home should be providing individualised activity support, but no evidence of this appears in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities matter more than most families expect when choosing a care home. Our review data shows that resident happiness, which is closely linked to meaningful daily engagement, is mentioned in 27.1% of positive family reviews. Good Practice research is clear that group activities alone are not enough, particularly for people in the middle or later stages of dementia who may not be able to participate in organised sessions. Ask specifically about what happens for your parent on a day when they do not want to join a group, or when they are having a more confused day.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and everyday household task approaches, tailored to the individual rather than the group, produced measurable improvements in wellbeing for people with moderate to advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask: if my parent cannot or does not want to join a group activity, what would a typical morning look like for them? Ask to see the activity records for a resident with similar needs to your parent."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Leadership was rated Good in November 2018. Mrs Kim Gallagher is named as the Nominated Individual for Knightingale Care Limited. The published report does not name the registered manager, give their tenure, describe the management culture, or explain how the home handles staff concerns or complaints. No governance detail was published.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research consistently links management stability to quality trajectory: homes where the registered manager has been in post for more than two years tend to have more consistent care cultures and lower staff turnover. Because the inspection was conducted in 2018, you have no way of knowing from the published report whether the same manager is still in post, how many senior staff have changed, or whether the culture described then reflects the home today. This is one of the most important questions to ask before committing to a placement. Management stability predicts your parent's day-to-day experience more than almost any other single factor, according to our review data (23.4% weight in the family score).","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability and a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear as the two strongest structural predictors of consistent, person-led care in dementia settings.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in this role, and how many of your senior carers have been here more than two years? If there has been significant turnover since 2018, ask what changed and what has been done to stabilise the team."}

  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 The home cares for adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on While dementia care is provided here, families considering the home for someone with dementia might want to ask about specific approaches and activities during their visit. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.