Laureate Court Care Home In Rotherham – Runwood Homes Senior Living | Sheffield

What families say

Families often mention how quickly their loved ones settle into life here. The staff take time to understand each person's personality and preferences, creating connections through everyday conversations. What stands out is the consistency — whether it's morning or evening, weekday or weekend, residents receive the same attentive approach.

Based on 15 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth75
• Compassion & dignity75
• Cleanliness72
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality60
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership45
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-01-29 · Report published 2022-01-29 · Inspected 8 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This covers areas including staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to and learns from incidents. The published inspection summary does not include specific observations, staff ratios, or examples of how risks are managed. What we know is that inspectors were satisfied enough to award a Good rating rather than the previous Requires Improvement.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is a baseline you need, not a ceiling you should settle for. For a home of 84 beds with a dementia specialism, the details that matter most to families are night staffing numbers and agency staff reliance. Our Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) identifies night staffing as the point where safety most commonly slips in care homes. The published report does not record these figures, which means you will need to ask directly. Safe does not tell you whether your parent will be checked on at 3am or whether the person doing so has worked there before.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent safety in care homes, particularly overnight and at weekends. A Good safety rating is a necessary starting point, but it does not substitute for knowing who is actually on shift.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the planned template. Count the number of permanent staff versus agency names, and ask specifically how many carers are rostered on the dementia unit after 8pm."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This covers care planning, staff training, healthcare access including GP involvement and medicines, and nutrition. The published summary does not record specific examples of how care plans are written or reviewed, what dementia training staff have received, or how food quality and choice are managed. The Good rating indicates inspectors found these areas satisfactory overall.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a dementia care home is not just about ticking compliance boxes. It means your parent's care plan is a living document that reflects who they are today, not who they were when they first arrived. Our Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) highlights that regular, family-inclusive care plan reviews are one of the strongest markers of genuinely personalised care. The inspection does not tell us how often plans are reviewed at Laureate Court, or whether families are invited to contribute. This is a gap worth filling before you decide.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that dementia-specific training which covers non-verbal communication, behaviour as communication, and person-centred approaches produces measurably better outcomes for residents than general care training alone. Ask what the training actually covers, not just whether it exists.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how often are care plans formally reviewed, and can you as a family member attend or contribute to your parent's review? Then ask what dementia training all care staff complete and when it was last refreshed."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. This is the domain most directly about whether staff are kind, whether your parent is treated with dignity, and whether their independence and preferences are respected. The published summary provides no specific inspector observations, resident quotes, or examples of how staff behave day to day. The rating itself is the only evidence available from this inspection.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important theme in our family review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews across 5,409 UK care homes. Compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. A Good rating for Caring is encouraging, but the absence of specific detail in the published report means you cannot rely on it alone. The things that matter most to families, whether staff use your mum's preferred name, whether they move without hurry, whether they sit at eye level, cannot be confirmed from a rating. You need to see them yourself.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) found that non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication for people living with advanced dementia. Staff who understand this adjust their tone, pace, and body language even when words are lost. Ask the home how they train for this specifically.","watch_out":"When you visit, spend time in a communal area and watch how staff move through the space. Are they pausing to make eye contact with residents? Do they use names? Do they appear unhurried? These are the signals that no inspection report can fully capture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the January 2022 inspection. Responsiveness covers whether the home tailors activities and daily life to individuals, how it handles complaints, and whether end-of-life care planning is in place. The published summary includes no specific detail about the activity programme, what individual engagement looks like for residents with advanced dementia, or how the home responds to complaints. The Good rating is the only available evidence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and resident happiness together account for nearly half of what drives positive family reviews in our data (21.4% for activities and 27.1% for resident happiness). For someone living with dementia, meaningful engagement is not optional. It is part of care. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that group activities alone are insufficient: one-to-one engagement and everyday household tasks adapted to the person produce the best outcomes for people with moderate to advanced dementia. The inspection does not tell us whether Laureate Court offers this level of individual engagement. This is one of the most important questions to ask on your visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review (March 2026) found that Montessori-based and individually tailored approaches, including familiar domestic tasks such as folding, sorting, and simple cooking, produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes than group entertainment activities alone. Ask whether the home offers this kind of one-to-one, person-led engagement.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity records for the past two weeks, not the planned schedule. Then ask specifically: what happens for a resident who cannot join a group activity? Is there someone whose job it is to sit with that person one to one?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Requires improvement

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the January 2022 inspection. This is the one domain that did not reach Good. Requires Improvement in leadership means inspectors identified problems with governance, oversight, culture, or management that needed to be addressed. A monitoring review in July 2023 did not trigger a reassessment, but this does not mean the problems were confirmed as resolved. The home is operated by Runwood Homes Limited, with Mrs Lisa Annie Facer as registered manager and Dr Gavin O'Hare-Connolly as nominated individual.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time, according to the Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026). When leadership is rated Requires Improvement, it often points to problems with how the home monitors its own performance, whether staff feel able to raise concerns, and whether governance systems are robust enough to catch problems before they affect your parent. Management and communication with families account for 23.4% and 11.5% of family satisfaction scores in our review data. This rating is the single most important reason to visit in person and ask hard questions before making a decision.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice review found that homes where staff feel empowered to raise concerns without fear, and where managers are visible and known to residents by name, consistently outperform homes with formal but disconnected management structures. A Requires Improvement leadership rating often signals the latter.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: what did the inspection identify as requiring improvement in leadership, and what specific changes have been made since January 2022? Then ask how long the current manager has been in post. High manager turnover is a warning sign that the Good Practice evidence links to declining quality."}

  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 provides specialist dementia care alongside general support for adults over 65. They also offer care for younger adults who need residential support.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the team works to understand each person's unique needs and personality. The focus is on maintaining connections and helping residents feel secure in their surroundings. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.