The Sycamores Care Home

What families say

Visitors frequently comment on the friendly approach of staff members and how they take time to chat with residents. The Thursday social club appears to be a particular highlight, bringing people together for activities that keep spirits up.

Based on 16 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth72
• Compassion & dignity72
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement60
• Food quality60
• Healthcare68
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness68

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-06-17 · Report published 2022-06-17 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Sycamores received a Good rating for safety at its May 2022 inspection. This is an improvement from the previous Requires Improvement rating. The published report does not include specific detail about staffing numbers, night shift arrangements, medicines management, or falls recording. A Good Safe rating indicates inspectors were satisfied that the home was managing risks appropriately at the time of the visit.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating after a previous Requires Improvement gives some reassurance that the home identified and addressed whatever was causing concern before. However, safety is where the biggest gaps often appear between inspection visits, particularly on night shifts. Good Practice research across 61 studies found that night staffing is the period most associated with safety risks in care homes, and agency reliance can undermine the consistency that keeps people safe. Because the published findings include no staffing numbers, no falls data, and no medication detail, you will need to ask these questions directly. Cleanliness is cited in 24.3% of positive family reviews as a major factor in confidence, so look carefully at the premises when you visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that reliance on agency staff is consistently associated with reduced safety and continuity of care, because unfamiliar staff do not know individual residents' behaviours or baseline health.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota from last week, not a template. Count how many of the names on the night shift are permanent employees versus agency workers, and ask what the minimum staffing level is overnight for the 56-bed home."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Sycamores received a Good rating for Effective at its May 2022 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, nutrition, and healthcare access. The published report does not include specific detail about the content of care plans, how often they are reviewed, what dementia training staff have completed, or how food quality and menu choice are managed. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the overall standard.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating covers a lot of ground, from whether your parent's care plan actually reflects who they are as a person, to whether staff know how to support someone with dementia who can no longer communicate verbally. Good Practice research is clear that care plans should be living documents, updated after any significant change in health or behaviour, and that families should be involved in reviewing them. Food quality is mentioned in 20.9% of positive family reviews, and nutrition matters especially in dementia where appetite and swallowing can change. Because none of this detail is visible in the published findings, you should ask specifically about dementia training content and ask to see an anonymised example of how a care plan is structured.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that dementia-specific training focused on non-verbal communication and behavioural understanding, rather than generic awareness training, is associated with better outcomes for people with advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what specific dementia training staff have completed in the past 12 months and who delivers it. Generic e-learning and specialist face-to-face training are very different things. Ask whether training covers non-verbal communication and how to interpret distress behaviour."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Sycamores received a Good rating for Caring at its May 2022 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and whether people are treated as individuals. The published report contains no direct inspector observations of staff interactions, no quotes from residents or relatives, and no specific examples of how privacy or dignity were upheld. The Good rating indicates inspectors judged the overall standard of caring to be satisfactory.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, with 57.3% of positive reviews mentioning it by name, and compassion and dignity follow at 55.2%. A Good Caring rating is encouraging, but what matters to you is whether the staff who will be with your mum or dad every day are genuinely kind, patient, and unhurried. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal interaction for people with dementia, and that knowing the individual person (their history, their preferences, their triggers) is what separates person-centred care from task-based care. Because there are no specific observations in the published findings, your visit is essential. Watch how staff move around the building, whether they make eye contact and speak calmly, and whether they appear rushed.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base found that knowing a person's life history and individual preferences is the foundation of person-centred dementia care, and that homes where staff could describe individual residents' backgrounds and routines showed consistently better wellbeing outcomes.","watch_out":"When you visit, ask a member of staff to tell you something specific about one of the people they care for. Not their diagnosis or care needs, but something personal: a former job, a favourite television programme, a preference for how they take their tea. The answer will tell you more than any rating."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Sycamores received a Good rating for Responsive at its May 2022 inspection. This domain covers whether the home adapts to individual needs, provides meaningful activities, and plans for end-of-life care. The published report includes no specific detail about the activity programme, how activities are tailored to people with different levels of dementia, or how the home responds to changing needs. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied with the overall approach.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement are mentioned in 21.4% of positive family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. For someone with dementia, the question is not just whether there is a weekly activities timetable, but whether there is someone who will sit with your parent one to one if they cannot join a group, and whether the activities actually connect with who your parent is. Good Practice research highlights Montessori-based and everyday household task approaches as particularly effective for people with moderate to advanced dementia, because they draw on long-term procedural memory. The published findings give no visibility into whether The Sycamores takes this kind of tailored approach. Ask specifically about what happens for residents who spend most of their time in their room.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that individual, tailored activities grounded in a person's life history (including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or gardening) produced better engagement and reduced distress compared with group-only programmes.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator (or, if there is not a dedicated person, the manager) what happened last Tuesday afternoon for a resident who could not join the group session. If the answer is vague, ask how one-to-one time is planned and recorded for people with advanced dementia."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Sycamores received a Good rating for Well-led at its May 2022 inspection. The home is run by Highgate Care Services (Yorkshire) Ltd, with a named registered manager and a named nominated individual. The improvement from Requires Improvement to Good across all five domains since the previous inspection indicates that leadership has been effective in driving change. The published report does not include specific detail about how the manager supports staff, how feedback from residents and families is gathered, or how the home identifies and acts on concerns.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Well-led rating that follows a previous Requires Improvement is one of the more encouraging patterns to see, because it suggests the management team recognised problems and fixed them rather than waiting to be told again. Management visibility and accountability are mentioned in 23.4% of positive family reviews. Good Practice research shows that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of quality over time: homes where the manager is well-known to staff, residents, and families, and where staff feel able to raise concerns, consistently perform better. The fact that both the registered manager and nominated individual are named publicly is a small but positive signal. Ask how long the current manager has been in post.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that care homes with stable, visible leadership where staff felt empowered to speak up showed consistently better outcomes across safety, caring, and responsiveness domains compared with homes with high management turnover.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and whether there have been any significant changes to senior staff in the past 12 months. Also ask how the home collects feedback from families and what has changed as a result of that feedback in the past year."}

  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 Sycamores cares for adults both under and over 65, including those living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home provides specialist dementia support, with staff working to understand each resident's background and preferences. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.