Fernihurst Nursing Home – Sanctuary Care

What families say

Families talk about staff who stay attentive through the years, not just the early days. Whether someone's been there for months or much longer, people notice how the care remains consistent and thoughtful.

Based on 6 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness72
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership74
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2021-07-01 · Report published 2021-07-01 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"Fernihurst Nursing Home was rated Good for safety at the May 2021 inspection. This is an improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating, suggesting the home addressed whatever safety concerns were identified before. The published report does not provide specific detail about what was found during this inspection in terms of staffing levels, medicines management, falls recording, or infection control practices. The home is registered to provide nursing care, which means a registered nurse must be on duty at all times, though the published text does not confirm actual overnight staffing numbers.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A move from Requires Improvement to Good in safety is a meaningful step, and you should ask the home directly what changed. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in care homes, and our family review data shows that staff attentiveness accounts for 14% of what families comment on positively. The fact that this is a nursing home means registered nurses are required on shift, which offers an additional layer of clinical oversight compared to residential-only care homes. However, the published report gives no specific detail on medicines management, falls logging, or infection control, so you cannot rely on this report alone to form a safety picture.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent safety outcomes in care homes, particularly for people with dementia who rely on familiar faces to feel secure.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the last two weeks, not a template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff covered night shifts, and ask what the nurse-to-resident ratio is overnight across the 50 beds."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"Fernihurst was rated Good for Effective at the May 2021 inspection. The home provides nursing care for a broad mix of needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, which requires staff to hold a wide range of competencies. The published report does not provide specific detail about care plan quality, GP access, dementia training content, or how food and nutritional needs are managed. As a nursing home, the clinical oversight structure should be more robust than in a residential-only setting, but the inspection text does not confirm this with specific findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a nursing home covering dementia, mental health, and physical disability is genuinely complex. Our family review data shows that 12.7% of positive reviews specifically mention dementia-specific care as a reason for satisfaction, and 20.9% mention food quality. Neither of these areas is addressed in the published findings, so you are working with limited information. Good Practice evidence is clear that care plans should be treated as living documents reviewed at least monthly for people with changing needs, not filed and forgotten. Ask whether your parent's care plan will include their life history, preferred name, food likes and dislikes, and how they like to spend their time.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that dementia training which goes beyond basic awareness to include communication techniques and behaviour-as-communication understanding produces measurably better outcomes for residents, particularly in reducing the use of as-needed sedative medications.","watch_out":"Ask to see a sample (anonymised) care plan and check whether it contains personal detail such as the resident's preferred name, life history, food preferences, and daily routine, or whether it reads mainly as a medical document."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"Fernihurst was rated Good for Caring at the May 2021 inspection. This is a positive finding and an improvement from the previous Requires Improvement rating. The published report does not contain specific inspector observations of staff interactions, resident testimony about how they feel treated, or examples of dignity and privacy being upheld in practice. Good ratings in this domain typically require inspectors to observe and record specific examples of kind, respectful care, so the absence of detail in the published text is a limitation of what is available publicly rather than a concern about the rating itself.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth and compassion are the two most powerful drivers of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% and 55.2% of positive reviews respectively. These are also the qualities that are hardest to assess from a report and easiest to observe in person. When you visit, watch how staff greet your parent at the door, whether they use their preferred name without being prompted, and whether interactions feel unhurried or perfunctory. Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication, tone of voice, eye contact, and pace of movement, matters as much as words for people with advanced dementia who may have limited verbal ability.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett University evidence review found that person-led care, where staff know individual histories and preferences rather than relying solely on care plans, is strongly associated with reduced anxiety and distress in people with dementia.","watch_out":"During your visit, introduce your parent by their preferred name and watch whether staff pick it up and use it naturally in the conversation. If staff default to generic terms or do not use the name at all, that is worth noting."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"Fernihurst was rated Good for Responsive at the May 2021 inspection, again an improvement from Requires Improvement. This domain covers whether the home tailors care to individuals, provides meaningful activities, and handles complaints well. The published report does not include specific detail about the activity programme, how the home supports residents with advanced dementia to remain engaged, or how it handles end-of-life care planning. The home cares for a diverse group including people with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment, which makes responsiveness to individual need particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of what families mention positively in our review data, and resident happiness accounts for 27.1%. A home that is genuinely responsive will have a programme that goes beyond group entertainment to include one-to-one engagement for people who cannot participate in groups, and meaningful everyday tasks that give people a sense of purpose. Good Practice evidence points to Montessori-based approaches and familiar household activities as particularly effective for people with dementia. None of this is confirmed or denied by the published report, so it is an area where you need to ask specific questions.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that group-only activity programmes leave people with moderate to advanced dementia largely disengaged for most of the day, and that one-to-one activities even for as little as 20 minutes are associated with significantly improved mood and reduced distress.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last week's actual activity record, not the planned schedule. Ask specifically what happened for residents who could not join group sessions that week, and what one-to-one engagement was offered."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"Fernihurst was rated Good for Well-led at the May 2021 inspection, having previously been rated Requires Improvement. This improvement across all five domains simultaneously suggests the leadership made meaningful changes between inspections. Mrs Louise Palmer is the nominated individual registered with the regulator. The home is operated by Sanctuary Care Limited, which brings a national governance framework. The published report does not detail the registered manager's tenure, the culture observed during the inspection, or how staff feel about speaking up with concerns.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained care quality according to the Good Practice evidence base. A home that has improved across all domains at once often reflects a change in management or a significant effort by an existing manager to address identified gaps. Our family review data shows that 23.4% of positive reviews mention management quality and 11.5% mention communication with families as a reason for satisfaction. Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post, because a manager who has been there less than six months may not yet have fully embedded the improvements that drove this rating.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research rapid evidence review found that leadership stability, defined as a registered manager in post for more than 12 months, is one of the most consistent predictors of sustained Good or Outstanding ratings in subsequent inspections.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and whether they were in place during the previous Requires Improvement inspection. If there has been a recent manager change, ask who is responsible for maintaining the improvements and how that continuity is managed."}

  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 supports people with various needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. They care for both younger adults under 65 and older residents.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the home provides specialized support as part of their wider care approach. Staff work with the particular challenges dementia brings while maintaining each person's dignity and comfort. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.