Carshalton Nursing Home

What families say

Families talk about how staff help residents settle in, particularly those with dementia who might struggle with change. The team seems to understand that patience and consistency make all the difference when someone's adjusting to their new surroundings.

Based on 5 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement65
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership72
• Resident happiness70

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-07-22 · Report published 2022-07-22 · Inspected 8 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the July 2025 inspection, a substantial improvement from the previous Inadequate overall rating. However, the published report does not include specific detail about what inspectors observed in relation to staffing levels, medicines management, falls prevention, or infection control. No night staffing numbers are recorded, and no information about agency staff usage is provided. The home is a 33-bed nursing home, meaning qualified nurses should be available at all times, but shift-by-shift arrangements are not described in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, particularly given where this home has come from, but the absence of specific detail in the published report means you cannot rely on the rating alone. Good Practice research from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety most often slips in care homes. For a home with 33 residents, including people with dementia and mental health conditions, knowing how many permanent staff are on overnight is one of the most important questions you can ask. Agency reliance is another key indicator: homes that depend heavily on agency staff struggle to maintain the consistency and familiarity that keep residents safe, particularly those with dementia who become distressed around unfamiliar faces.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies night staffing ratios and agency staff reliance as the two strongest predictors of safety-related incidents in care homes. A home rated Good for safety should be able to tell you, without hesitation, exactly how many permanent staff are on each night shift.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not just the template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency or bank staff, and specifically ask how many people are on duty overnight for the 33 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the July 2025 inspection. The published report does not provide specific detail about care plan quality, how often plans are reviewed, whether families are involved in reviews, or what dementia training staff have completed. The home is registered for a wide range of conditions including dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, which requires a broad and well-maintained training offer. No detail about GP access, medication reviews, or nutrition monitoring is included in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a care home is about whether the people working there genuinely know your parent as an individual and can respond to their changing needs. Good Practice research identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated regularly and co-produced with families, not written once and filed away. For your mum or dad, this means asking to see their draft care plan before they move in, and asking how often it is formally reviewed and whether you will be invited to those reviews. The home's dementia registration is relevant here: 12.7% of positive family reviews in our data specifically mention dementia-specific understanding as a reason for satisfaction, so asking about training content and how it translates into day-to-day practice is a concrete and important question.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that dementia training which focuses only on theory, rather than on practical communication and behaviour-understanding skills, does not reliably improve care outcomes. Ask what the training covers and how recently it was updated.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how often are care plans formally reviewed, and when was the last time a family member was invited to contribute to a review? If the answer is vague or refers only to annual reviews, press for more detail."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the July 2025 inspection. The published report contains no specific observational detail about how staff interact with residents, whether residents are addressed by preferred names, how staff respond to distress, or how dignity is maintained during personal care. No resident or relative quotes are recorded in the published findings available for this report. Given that the home supports people with dementia and mental health conditions, the quality of non-verbal communication and unhurried interaction is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important driver of family satisfaction in our review data: it appears in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity in 55.2%. These are not abstract qualities; they are observable on a visit. Watch whether staff knock before entering rooms, use your mum or dad's preferred name without being prompted, and move at a pace that matches the person they are supporting rather than their own schedule. Good Practice research is clear that for people with dementia, non-verbal communication, tone of voice, eye contact, and physical proximity, matters as much as what is said. The inspection's Good rating for Caring is encouraging, but without specific observations in the published report, you should treat your own visit as the primary source of evidence.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that person-led care requires staff to know the individual's history, preferences, and communication style, not just their medical needs. Homes where staff can describe a resident's life history unprompted consistently score higher on family satisfaction.","watch_out":"During your visit, ask a member of staff what your parent's preferred name is and what they like to do in the morning. If staff hesitate or have to check paperwork, that tells you something important about how well individuals are known here."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the July 2025 inspection. The published report does not include specific detail about the activities programme, how activities are tailored to individuals with dementia or physical disabilities, or whether one-to-one engagement is available for residents who cannot join group activities. No information about how the home responds to individual preferences, complaints, or changing needs is provided in the published findings. The home's range of specialisms suggests a diverse resident group with significantly different needs.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Responsiveness is about whether your mum or dad will have a life here, not just a safe place to sleep. Our review data shows that activities and engagement appear in 21.4% of positive family reviews, but the quality matters as much as the quantity. Good Practice research consistently finds that group activities alone are insufficient for people with more advanced dementia; what makes the difference is one-to-one engagement, household tasks that feel familiar, and activities rooted in the person's own history. For a 33-bed home supporting people with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities, ask specifically what happens for someone who cannot get out of bed or who finds group settings distressing. The published inspection findings do not tell you this, so it is a question you need to ask directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review found that Montessori-based and life-history approaches to activity, and the availability of meaningful one-to-one engagement, have stronger evidence for wellbeing outcomes than structured group programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity programme for last week, not a template or a planned schedule. Then ask: what happened yesterday for someone who stayed in their room? If there is no clear answer, ask how one-to-one time is allocated and recorded."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the July 2025 inspection, which is the domain most directly linked to the improvement from Inadequate. Mr Robert Kluz is named as Registered Manager and Mr Praveen Modha as Nominated Individual. The published report does not include detail about how long the current manager has been in post, what changes were made to achieve the improvement, or how the management team supports staff to speak up. No information about governance processes, audit cycles, or how the home responds to complaints is provided in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good leadership is the foundation of consistent care. Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory in care homes, according to Good Practice research: homes with a settled, visible manager who staff know and trust tend to maintain and improve their ratings, while frequent management changes are a warning sign. The improvement from Inadequate to Good is significant and reflects real changes in leadership, but it is worth understanding how recent and how stable those changes are. Our family review data shows that management and communication with families appears in 23.4% and 11.5% of positive reviews respectively, and that families value knowing they can reach someone who will act when they raise a concern. Ask the manager directly how long they have been in post and what the biggest change they made was.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that leadership stability and bottom-up empowerment, where staff feel safe to raise concerns without fear, are the two factors most strongly associated with sustained quality improvement in care homes that have previously been rated Inadequate.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager: how long have you been in this role, and what is the one change you are most proud of since the previous inspection? Their answer, and their ease in giving it, will tell you a great deal about the culture of this home."}

  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 over and under 65, including those with dementia, mental health conditions and physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on The team shows particular skill in supporting residents with dementia through settling-in periods. Staff work with challenging behaviours calmly, maintaining consistent approaches that help build trust. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.