Grasmere Rest Home

What families say

Families describe a warm atmosphere where staff know each resident as an individual. The structured activity programme runs Monday to Friday, giving residents something to look forward to each day. People talk about seeing genuine happiness in their relatives' faces during visits.

Based on 26 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth82
• Compassion & dignity90
• Cleanliness70
• Activities & engagement70
• Food quality65
• Healthcare70
• Management & leadership75
• Resident happiness75

What inspectors found

Inspected 2019-08-06 · Report published 2019-08-06 · Inspected 5 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The safe domain was rated Good at the August 2020 inspection. This means inspectors were satisfied that the home was meeting the required standards for safety, staffing, medicines management, and infection control. The published report text does not provide specific detail about staffing ratios, falls management, or medicines processes. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating suggests that earlier safety concerns have been addressed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating tells you the basics were in order when inspectors visited. However, the inspection findings are from 2020, and the report text available does not give you the specific numbers that matter most, particularly how many permanent staff are on the unit at night for 25 residents. Good Practice research consistently identifies night staffing as the point where safety is most likely to slip, and a previous Requires Improvement rating means you should ask directly what changed and how safety is monitored now. The absence of specific agency staff data in the report means this is another question to ask on a visit.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that night staffing levels and agency staff reliance are among the most reliable predictors of safety outcomes in residential dementia care. A home that knows its night ratios and can show low agency use is demonstrating genuine safety awareness.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the past two weeks, not a template. Count how many of those names are permanent staff and how many are agency, particularly on night shifts."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The effective domain was rated Good at the August 2020 inspection. This covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and food. The home is registered as a specialist dementia service, which implies inspectors considered dementia-specific care in their assessment. The published text does not describe specific training programmes, care plan content, GP access arrangements, or food quality in any detail.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for effectiveness tells you that inspectors were broadly satisfied, but for a home specialising in dementia, the detail behind that rating matters enormously. Good Practice evidence from the Leeds Beckett review shows that care plans need to function as living documents, updated regularly as your parent's needs change, not filed away after admission. Dementia training quality also varies widely: ask what the training actually covers, whether it includes non-verbal communication, and how recently staff were assessed. Food quality is one of the most mentioned themes in our family review data (20.9% of positive reviews) and it is not described anywhere in the available inspection text, so visit at lunchtime if you can.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies regular, family-inclusive care plan reviews as a key marker of effective dementia care. Homes that invite families to review meetings tend to catch unmet needs earlier and demonstrate a more personalised approach to care.","watch_out":"Ask when care plans are reviewed and whether you would be invited to take part. If the answer is that reviews happen annually or only when something goes wrong, that is a concern."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Outstanding

  {"found":"The caring domain was rated Outstanding at the August 2020 inspection. This is the highest possible rating and cannot be awarded on the basis of general compliance statements alone. Inspectors must have found specific, direct evidence of staff treating residents with warmth, dignity, and genuine respect. The home had previously been rated Requires Improvement overall, making the Outstanding caring rating a particularly notable finding. The published report text available does not reproduce the specific observations or quotes that earned this rating.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity appear in 55.2%. An Outstanding rating for caring is the strongest possible signal that the people who live at Grasmere are being treated well. What to look for on a visit is what inspectors would have looked for: do staff knock before entering rooms, use your parent's preferred name, move without hurrying, and respond to distress calmly and without irritation. Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal care, particularly for people living with advanced dementia who may not be able to express preferences in words.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that person-led care, where staff know individual histories, preferences, and communication styles, is the foundation of good dementia care. Outstanding caring ratings are associated with homes where this knowledge is embedded in daily practice, not just recorded in a file.","watch_out":"Arrive unannounced if possible, or at least at an unstructured time such as mid-morning. Watch how staff interact with residents in corridors and communal areas when no one is clearly being observed. Are interactions warm and unhurried, or functional and brief?"}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The responsive domain was rated Good at the August 2020 inspection. This domain covers how well the home tailors care to individual needs, including activities, engagement, and end-of-life care. The home is registered as a dementia specialist service for 25 residents. The published report text does not describe specific activity programmes, individual engagement approaches, or end-of-life planning in any detail.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for responsiveness is encouraging, but for a dementia-specialist home, the key question is whether the activity offer goes beyond group sessions. Our review data shows that activities and engagement matter to 21.4% of families who leave positive reviews, and resident happiness and contentment appear in 27.1%. Good Practice research is clear that for people living with advanced dementia, one-to-one engagement, including everyday tasks like folding, watering plants, or looking through photographs, is often more beneficial than group activities. The inspection findings do not tell us whether this kind of tailored engagement is happening. Ask the activities coordinator specifically what would happen for your parent on a day when they were too anxious or fatigued to join a group.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett review found that Montessori-based and individually tailored activity approaches, including involvement in everyday household tasks, improve wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia more reliably than group programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activities log for the past two weeks, not the planned timetable. Check whether individual one-to-one sessions are recorded, and ask what activities would be offered to a resident who preferred to stay in their room."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The well-led domain was rated Good at the August 2020 inspection. The home is run by Mrs Zeenat Nanji and Mr Salim Nanji, and a registered manager, Mrs Antonina Gont, is in post. The improvement from a previous Requires Improvement rating to Good overall suggests that leadership has driven meaningful improvements. The published report text does not describe the manager's visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how complaints are handled.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Good Practice research shows that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. A named, registered manager who has been in post long enough to drive an improvement from Requires Improvement is a positive indicator. However, the inspection findings are from 2020, and management continuity since then is unknown. Our family review data shows that communication with families is mentioned in 11.5% of positive reviews, and families rate visible, approachable management highly. Ask how long the current manager has been in post, how they handle concerns raised by families, and what has changed in the home since the 2020 inspection.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett review found that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff feel able to raise concerns without fear, is a reliable marker of good leadership in care homes. Ask during your visit whether staff seem comfortable speaking about the home in front of the manager.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in post, and what is the one thing you have changed most recently to improve care? A manager who can answer specifically and without hesitation is demonstrating the kind of accountability that predicts good outcomes."}

  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 specialises in caring for adults over 65, with particular expertise in dementia care.. Gaps or open questions remain on The weekday activity programme has been designed with residents' cognitive needs in mind, helping maintain engagement and emotional wellbeing. Staff show real understanding of how to support people living with dementia as individuals within the community. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.