Harrier House Care Home
At a Glance
The information you need to decide whether this home warrants a closer look.
Residential homes
Staff warmth score
of reviewers answered yes
Good to know
- Registered beds84
- SpecialismsCaring for adults over 65 yrs, Caring for adults under 65 yrs, Dementia, Mental health conditions, Physical disabilities, Sensory impairment
- Last inspected2022-09-07
- Visit Website
The Evidence
What the review data, the inspection reports, and the dementia-care evidence base tell us about this home.
What families say
Families describe feeling immediately at ease when arriving at Harrier House, whether for respite stays or permanent care. The staff handle those anxious first moments with real understanding, and new residents quickly settle into relationships built on genuine trust and connection.
Based on 8 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10
The eight family priority themes
- Staff warmth55
- Compassion & dignity55
- Cleanliness55
- Activities & engagement50
- Food quality50
- Healthcare55
- Management & leadership60
- Resident happiness55
What inspectors found
Inspected 2022-09-07 · Report published 2022-09-07
Is this home safe?
{"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. The home is registered for 84 beds and supports people with a wide range of needs including dementia, mental health conditions, and physical disabilities. No specific concerns were recorded in the published findings. The published report does not include staffing ratios, information about agency staff use, falls data, or detail about how incidents are logged and reviewed.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a meaningful baseline, but 84 beds is a sizeable home, and the range of specialisms means staff need to manage very different levels of need at the same time. Our Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is the point where safety most commonly slips in care homes, and that reliance on agency workers undermines the consistency that people with dementia particularly need. The published inspection findings do not give you the detail to assess either of those risks here, so you will need to ask directly. If the manager cannot tell you the permanent-to-agency ratio and the overnight headcount without hesitation, that itself is useful information.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff use is one of the strongest predictors of safety incidents in care homes, because unfamiliar faces are more stressful for people with dementia and because handovers are less reliable when staff do not know the residents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual rota, not a template. Count how many night shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers, and ask what the minimum headcount is overnight for 84 residents."}
Is the care effective?
{"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. This domain covers training, care planning, healthcare access, and food. Dementia is listed as a specialism, which implies specific training and care planning approaches should be in place. No detail about training content, care plan format, GP access frequency, or food quality was published in the inspection report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness is where you find out whether the home genuinely understands your parent as an individual, not just as a diagnosis. Our Good Practice evidence identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated every time something changes, with families actively involved in those updates. Food quality is also a reliable marker: homes that take nutrition seriously tend to take personalisation seriously across the board. The inspection gives you a Good rating but no specifics, so on your visit, ask to see a sample care plan (with personal details removed) and ask what the home serves on a day when the chef is off.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review found that care homes with structured, regularly reviewed care plans that include the person's life history, preferences, and communication style produce measurably better outcomes for people with dementia than homes that treat care plans as administrative documents.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often care plans are formally reviewed, who is invited to take part in those reviews, and what happens between reviews when your parent's needs change. Ask to see the process, not just hear a description of it."}
Is this home caring?
{"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, and support for independence. No specific inspector observations, resident testimony, or relative quotes were included in the published report. The rating alone indicates that inspectors did not find failings in this area, but the absence of published detail means there is no specific evidence to assess.","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 compassionate treatment is mentioned in 55.2%. Families consistently describe the same observable signals: staff using preferred names, moving without hurry, and responding calmly when someone is distressed. The inspection did not record specific examples of these behaviours at Harrier House, so you need to observe them yourself. Spend at least 30 minutes in a communal area during a visit and watch how staff interact with residents, not with you.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review emphasises that non-verbal communication, including pace, tone, and physical proximity, matters as much as words for people with dementia. Staff who crouch to eye level, speak slowly, and do not rush past residents are demonstrating trained, person-centred behaviour.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a resident calls out or appears unsettled. Does a staff member respond promptly, calmly, and by name? Or does the call go unanswered for several minutes? This single observation tells you more than any policy document."}
Is the home responsive?
{"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. This domain covers activities, engagement, individuality, and end-of-life care. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies tailored activity approaches should be in place. No detail about the activity programme, one-to-one engagement, or end-of-life planning was published in the inspection report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities matter more than many families expect. Our review data shows that resident happiness, which is closely tied to meaningful engagement, accounts for 27.1% of positive review sentiment. The Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with advanced dementia, and that homes which offer one-to-one engagement rooted in a person's life history produce significantly better wellbeing outcomes. The published inspection findings do not tell you whether Harrier House does this. On your visit, ask what would happen on a typical Tuesday afternoon for a resident who cannot join a group session.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research evidence review found that Montessori-based and life-history approaches to individual activity, including familiar household tasks and sensory engagement, reduce distress and agitation in people with dementia more effectively than structured group programmes alone.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity records for one resident over the past month (with names removed). Check whether there is evidence of one-to-one engagement on days when no group activity was scheduled, and whether the activities reflect that person's interests rather than a standard programme."}
Is the home well-led?
{"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the August 2022 inspection. The home is run by Henry Holdings Limited, with a named registered manager (Mrs Samantha Margaret Kavanagh) and a named nominated individual (Ms Emma Sara Philpott). A monitoring review in July 2023 found no reason to change the rating. No information about management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or how the home handles complaints was published in the inspection report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Our Good Practice evidence base found that homes with consistent, visible leadership, where staff feel able to raise concerns without fear, maintain quality far more reliably than homes where leadership turns over frequently. The inspection confirms a formal structure is in place and a monitoring review 11 months later found no deterioration, which is reassuring. However, management quality is best assessed in person: a good manager knows residents by name, knows what happened on the previous night shift, and can answer your questions without reaching for a folder.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett evidence review identified that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline staff feel heard and can escalate concerns, is a stronger predictor of sustained care quality than top-down governance frameworks alone.","watch_out":"When you meet the manager, ask how long they have been in post and whether there have been any significant changes to the senior care team in the past 12 months. Then ask a care worker the same question separately. Consistent answers suggest a stable, open culture."}
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 of all ages with diverse needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. Their experience with younger adults alongside older residents brings a distinctive energy to the care approach.. Gaps or open questions remain on For residents living with dementia, the staff's focus on building genuine connections becomes especially important. The home's approach to knowing each person as an individual helps maintain dignity and emotional security through the progression of the condition. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.
The DCC Verdict
Our editorial view, built from the three lenses: what families tell us, what inspectors record, and how the home sits against good dementia-care practice.
DCC Family Score
Harrier House Care Home holds a Good rating across all five inspection domains, which is a positive baseline. However, the published inspection report contains very limited specific detail, observations, or testimony, so the family score reflects the rating rather than rich confirming evidence.
Homes in East Midlands typically score 68–82.The three-lens summary
What families tell us
Families describe feeling immediately at ease when arriving at Harrier House, whether for respite stays or permanent care. The staff handle those anxious first moments with real understanding, and new residents quickly settle into relationships built on genuine trust and connection.
What inspectors have recorded
What strikes families most is how well the staff know each resident — not just their care needs but who they are as people. During terminal care, this translates into compassionate support that helps residents feel emotionally secure, with staff providing individualised attention that families deeply value.
How it sits against good practice
Sometimes the measure of a care home shows most clearly in how they handle life's most difficult transitions — something the families here remember with real gratitude.
Worth a visit
Harrier House Care Home, on Hurricane Road in Nottingham, was rated Good across all five inspection domains at its last inspection in August 2022. The rating covers safety, effectiveness, caring, responsiveness, and leadership, and a subsequent monitoring review in July 2023 found no reason to reassess. The home is registered for 84 beds and lists dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, and sensory impairment as specialisms, which is a broad range of needs for one setting. The main limitation of this report is that the published text is very brief and contains no specific inspector observations, resident or relative testimony, or measurable data. A Good rating is genuinely positive, but it does not tell you what day-to-day life looks like for your mum or dad. When you visit, focus on things you can see and ask: how many permanent staff were on the dementia unit last night, how often is your parent's care plan reviewed with you present, and what does one-to-one activity look like for someone who cannot join a group?
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In Their Own Words
How Harrier House Care Home describes itself — collected from its own website. DCC has not edited or independently verified the content in this tab.
Where dignity meets genuine care through life's final chapters
Compassionate Care in Nottingham at Harrier House Care Home
When families face the hardest moments, finding carers who truly understand becomes everything. Harrier House in Nottingham stands out for the way staff support residents through end-of-life transitions, with families consistently describing how their loved ones felt secure and valued right to the end. This care home specialises in complex needs across all ages, bringing that same attentive approach to every resident.
Who they care for
The home cares for adults of all ages with diverse needs including dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. Their experience with younger adults alongside older residents brings a distinctive energy to the care approach.
For residents living with dementia, the staff's focus on building genuine connections becomes especially important. The home's approach to knowing each person as an individual helps maintain dignity and emotional security through the progression of the condition.
Management & ethos
What strikes families most is how well the staff know each resident — not just their care needs but who they are as people. During terminal care, this translates into compassionate support that helps residents feel emotionally secure, with staff providing individualised attention that families deeply value.
“Sometimes the measure of a care home shows most clearly in how they handle life's most difficult transitions — something the families here remember with real gratitude.”
DCC does not edit or curate content in this tab. For independently curated information, see The Evidence and DCC Verdict.
