Casa Mia Care Home

What families say

Visitors describe a calm, compassionate atmosphere where staff take time to understand each resident as an individual. The home welcomes people at different stages of life, and observers have noticed how staff adapt their approach to match what each person needs.

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

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth82
• Compassion & dignity85
• Cleanliness65
• Activities & engagement80
• Food quality55
• Healthcare65
• Management & leadership70
• Resident happiness78

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-04-09 · Report published 2019-04-09 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the January 2019 inspection. This indicates inspectors found adequate staffing, medicines management, and safeguarding arrangements in place. The published report does not reproduce specific detail about staffing numbers, night cover, agency use, or falls management. A Good rating in Safe means the inspectors found no significant concerns, but it falls short of the Outstanding standard reached in Caring and Responsive.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Safe rating tells you that at the time of inspection the home was meeting its obligations, but it does not tell you how staffing holds up overnight or during winter pressures. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is where safety most often slips in care homes, particularly for people with dementia who may become distressed or fall after dark. Because this report is from 2019, staffing patterns may have changed. The most important thing you can do before placing your parent here is ask for the actual night rota and confirm how many permanent, named staff are on duty on the unit where your parent would live.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the strongest predictors of inconsistent and unsafe care, because unfamiliar faces increase distress in people with dementia and break the continuity that safe care depends on.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's night staffing rota for the dementia unit, not the approved template. Count how many of those names are permanent staff and how many are agency or bank workers."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the January 2019 inspection. This means inspectors found that care plans, training, and health monitoring were in place and functioning. The home supports adults with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, sensory impairment, and substance misuse, a wide and complex mix that requires broad staff competence. The published report does not record specific detail about which dementia training programmes are used, how often care plans are reviewed, or the frequency of GP access.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good Effective rating means the fundamentals are covered, but the detail matters enormously when your parent has dementia. Our Good Practice evidence identifies care plans as living documents, reviewed with family input and updated as the person changes, not filed and forgotten. The inspection does not tell us how often reviews happen here or whether families are invited to take part. Similarly, dementia training content varies enormously between homes: some use nationally accredited programmes with practical components, others rely on online tick-box modules. Ask specifically what training your parent's key worker has completed and when it was last updated.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training which includes communication skills and behaviour-as-communication frameworks produces measurably better resident outcomes than compliance-only training, and that the difference is visible in day-to-day staff interactions.","watch_out":"Ask what dementia training the staff member who would be your parent's key worker has completed, whether it included any face-to-face or practical elements, and when they last refreshed it."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Outstanding

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Outstanding at the January 2019 inspection. This is the strongest possible rating and requires inspectors to find specific, direct evidence of exceptional compassion, dignity, and respect, not just compliance with minimum standards. An Outstanding Caring rating at a home supporting people with dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities indicates that inspectors observed staff treating the people who live here as individuals with histories and preferences, not as a group of needs to be managed. The published report does not reproduce verbatim quotes or specific observations, but the rating itself is a meaningful signal.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive Google reviews across 5,409 UK care homes. Compassion and dignity appear in a further 55.2%. An Outstanding Caring rating puts Casa Mia in a small minority of homes where inspectors found the evidence strong enough and specific enough to exceed Good. When you visit, watch how staff speak to residents in corridors and communal areas, not just in the formal tour. Are residents addressed by their preferred names? Do staff stop and listen, or do they move through tasks without pausing? These small moments are what the Outstanding rating should reflect.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base confirms that non-verbal communication, eye contact, unhurried pace, and physical proximity, carries as much weight as spoken words for people at a moderate or advanced stage of dementia, and that Outstanding caring environments show this in observable staff behaviour rather than stated values.","watch_out":"During your visit, spend at least 15 minutes sitting in a communal area without the manager present. Watch whether staff address residents by name, whether they crouch or sit to speak at eye level, and whether any resident appears to be waiting for attention without acknowledgement."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Outstanding

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Outstanding at the January 2019 inspection. Outstanding in Responsive requires inspectors to find that the home tailors support to individual needs and histories, provides meaningful activities beyond a standard timetable, and responds flexibly when someone's needs or preferences change. For a home supporting people with dementia alongside mental health conditions and physical disabilities, this is a demanding standard to reach. The published report does not give specific examples of activities, individual care arrangements, or end-of-life planning practices.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"An Outstanding Responsive rating is the domain finding most directly connected to quality of daily life for your parent. Our review data shows that activities and engagement are mentioned positively in 21.4% of family reviews, and resident happiness in 27.1%. The Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are insufficient for people with moderate to advanced dementia: one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks, music from a person's own era, and gentle sensory activity, matters enormously and is harder to sustain at consistent quality. The published findings do not confirm whether one-to-one activity is available here, so ask directly and ask to see evidence of it in care records on your visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that Montessori-based and activity-based approaches tailored to individual cognitive capacity produce significantly higher wellbeing scores than group-only programmes, and that the gap in outcomes is most visible for people who can no longer initiate or join group activities independently.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities record or care notes for a resident who has advanced dementia and cannot join group sessions. Check whether one-to-one engagement is recorded, not just group attendance, and whether the activities described reflect that person's individual history and preferences."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the January 2019 inspection. The home is owned and managed by Mr and Mrs Winfield, with one of them listed as the registered manager. Owner-management of a 40-bed home is a structural advantage for leadership visibility and accountability: the person in charge has a direct personal and financial stake in the home's quality. A Good rating indicates that governance, staff support, and quality monitoring were functioning. The published report does not record specific detail about audit systems, staff survey findings, or how the management team responds to complaints.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our Good Practice evidence identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory: homes where the manager has been in post for several years and is known to staff and residents by name tend to sustain quality better than those with frequent management changes. Owner-managed homes at this scale often benefit from faster decision-making and a more personal culture, but it is worth asking whether day-to-day management cover is consistent when the owner-managers are absent. Communication with families is mentioned positively in 11.5% of our review data, but the published findings do not tell you how Casa Mia handles this in practice. Ask how you would be told about a change in your parent's condition, and by whom.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that staff who feel able to raise concerns without fear of reprisal are a reliable indicator of a well-led home, and that bottom-up empowerment, where care workers can flag issues directly to management, predicts faster improvement when problems arise.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how long each member of the senior care team has been in post, and ask what happens to leadership cover when both owner-managers are away from the home at the same time."}

  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 Casa Mia supports people with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairments. They also care for adults under 65 and those dealing with substance misuse issues.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home's approach to dementia care includes sensory design features and varied communal spaces that help residents maintain their independence. Activities are adapted to different cognitive abilities, with both group sessions and one-to-one support available. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.