Dearnlea Park

What families say

Visitors frequently mention how welcoming they find the atmosphere here. The staff seem to have a natural warmth that puts both residents and their families at ease.

Based on 12 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 2023-08-03 · Report published 2023-08-03 · Inspected 3 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Safe domain Good at the January 2025 assessment. This covers staffing levels, medicines management, infection control, and how the home responds to accidents and incidents. No specific observations, ratios, or examples are included in the published summary. The previous overall rating was Requires Improvement, so this Good rating represents an improvement in how safety is managed. The home cares for people with dementia and mental health conditions, which makes consistent, attentive staffing particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring, but the published report does not tell you the detail that matters most to families: how many permanent staff are on at night, how often agency workers cover shifts, and how quickly the team responds when your parent falls or becomes unwell. Our review data shows that families link safety most closely to staff attentiveness and consistency rather than to formal compliance scores. Good Practice research consistently finds that night staffing is where safety is most likely to slip, particularly in homes with high occupancy or a heavy reliance on agency cover. You will need to ask the home these questions directly, because the published inspection does not answer them.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base (IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University, 2026) identifies agency staff reliance as one of the most significant risk factors for inconsistent safety in dementia care settings, because unfamiliar staff cannot read the early signs of distress or deterioration in people they do not know well.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not the approved template. Count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff and how many by agency workers, specifically on the dementia unit and specifically after 8pm."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Effective domain Good at the January 2025 assessment. This domain covers how well staff understand and meet each person's needs, including care planning, health monitoring, access to GPs and other professionals, dementia-specific training, and food and nutrition. No specific examples, training records, or care plan detail are included in the published summary. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which means inspectors would have considered whether staff have relevant knowledge and skills.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective tells you that inspectors found care planning and health management broadly satisfactory. What it does not tell you is whether your parent's care plan would reflect the things that matter to them specifically: their preferred name, their daily routines, what helps them feel calm. Our review data shows that food quality features in 20.9% of positive family reviews, making it one of the most frequently mentioned indicators of genuine care. Good Practice research highlights that care plans should be treated as living documents, updated after any significant change and reviewed at least monthly for someone with advancing dementia. Ask the home directly how often reviews happen and whether families are invited to contribute.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies regular, structured dementia training as one of the clearest predictors of effective person-centred care. Homes where all staff, including night staff and kitchen staff, have completed accredited dementia awareness training show measurably better outcomes in resident wellbeing and incident reduction.","watch_out":"Ask the manager what dementia training all staff (including night care staff and agency workers) have completed in the last 12 months, and whether the training covers non-verbal communication and responding to behaviour that might indicate pain or distress."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Caring domain Good at the January 2025 assessment. This domain covers the warmth and kindness of staff interactions, whether people are treated with dignity and respect, whether privacy is maintained, and whether people are supported to remain as independent as possible. No specific observations, resident quotes, or examples of individual interactions are included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity feature in 55.2%. A Good rating for Caring is meaningful, but the absence of specific observations in the published summary means you cannot yet picture what daily interactions look like at Dearnlea Park. Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken words for people with advanced dementia: a calm tone, unhurried movements, and eye contact at the person's level are the things to observe when you visit. Watch how staff approach your parent or another resident in a corridor or communal room, not just in a formal introduction.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies person-led care, knowing someone's life history, their preferences, and the words that help them feel safe, as the foundation of genuinely caring practice. Homes that use detailed life history tools as part of care planning consistently achieve higher resident wellbeing scores than those that rely on standard care plan templates alone.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in the corridor. Do they make eye contact, use the person's name, and pause briefly, or do they walk past? This small, unrehearsed moment tells you more about the culture than any planned tour."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Responsive domain Good at the January 2025 assessment. This domain covers how well the home tailors its care to individual needs, including activities, engagement, support for people who cannot join group activities, and end-of-life planning. No specific examples of activity programmes, individual engagement records, or end-of-life care arrangements are included in the published summary. The home supports people with dementia, for whom individual, meaningful activity is particularly important.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and resident happiness together account for a combined weighting of 48.5% in our family review data, reflecting how much families care about whether their parent has a life worth living, not just a safe place to sleep. A Good rating for Responsive is positive, but it does not tell you whether the home relies on large group sessions or whether staff make time for individual engagement with someone who cannot join a group. Good Practice research strongly supports tailored one-to-one activity, including everyday tasks such as folding, sorting, or tending plants, as a way of maintaining a sense of purpose and identity for people with advanced dementia. This is one of the most important things to ask about before you make a decision.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base highlights Montessori-based and activity-based approaches, where people are supported to engage with familiar, meaningful tasks at their own pace, as significantly more effective for wellbeing in people with moderate to advanced dementia than structured group activities alone.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity records from last week, not the printed timetable. Look for evidence of one-to-one activity for people who cannot engage with a group, and ask specifically what would happen for your parent on a day when they did not want to leave their room."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"Inspectors rated the Well-led domain Good at the January 2025 assessment. This domain covers the quality of management, the culture within the home, whether staff feel supported to speak up, and how well the home uses information to improve. The registered manager is named as Miss Victoria Louise Peace. The home is operated by Mr and Mrs M Sharif. No detail on manager tenure, staff feedback, governance processes, or how the home responded to the previous Requires Improvement rating is included in the published summary.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management quality is linked to 23.4% of positive family reviews and, more importantly, Good Practice research identifies leadership stability as one of the strongest predictors of quality trajectory. A home that has moved from Requires Improvement back to Good has done something right, but the published report does not tell you how that improvement was achieved or whether it is embedded. The fact that a named registered manager is in post is a positive sign, but you should ask how long she has been in this role and whether the team around her is stable. A change of manager or a sudden increase in occupancy can put pressure on a Good rating quickly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies leadership stability and bottom-up staff empowerment, where care staff feel safe to raise concerns and see those concerns acted on, as the two factors most strongly associated with sustained quality improvement in care homes over a 12-month period.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager directly: how long have you been in this role, and what were the main changes the home made after the previous Requires Improvement rating? A manager who can answer this clearly and specifically, with examples, is a stronger signal of genuine improvement than the rating alone."}

  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 caters to quite a diverse group — they look after adults under 65 as well as older residents, and have experience supporting people with mental health conditions alongside their dementia care.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the staff's naturally warm approach can make such a difference. The team here works with residents at different stages of their dementia journey. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.