Hastings Residential Care Home – Sanctuary Care

What families say

The frontline care team consistently gets praise for their warmth and friendliness. People notice how staff take time to chat with residents throughout the day, and visiting seems to be quite flexible. The home keeps everywhere spotless and bright, with real attention paid to making individual rooms feel personal.

Based on 30 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 2019-06-06 · Report published 2019-06-06 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This rating covers staffing levels, medicines management, safeguarding, and infection control. The published text does not include specific observations on any of these areas. No concerns or failures were identified, but equally no detail is provided to confirm what good practice looks like in this home. Named management was recorded, which indicates basic accountability structures are in place.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is a necessary baseline, but it is not sufficient on its own to reassure you about day-to-day safety for your parent. Our review data shows that staff attentiveness is a concern families raise in around 14% of reviews. The Good Practice evidence base highlights that night staffing is the period most associated with safety gaps in care homes. Because the published text gives no staffing ratios and no detail on agency use, you cannot assess this from the report alone. Visiting at different times of day, including early evening, will give you a far better picture than the published findings can.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that agency staff reliance is one of the most consistent predictors of safety lapses, because unfamiliar staff do not know individual residents and cannot spot changes in behaviour that signal deterioration.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual night-shift rota for the dementia unit, not the template. Count how many named permanent staff feature versus agency names, and ask what the minimum overnight staffing level is for the 63-bed home."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This domain covers care planning, health monitoring, GP access, staff training, and nutrition. The published text provides no specific examples from any of these areas. The home lists dementia as a specialism, which implies a commitment to dementia-specific practice, but no training records, care plan descriptions, or healthcare access detail are referenced in the available report.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Food quality alone accounts for 20.9% of the positive themes families mention in our review data, and healthcare access accounts for a further 20.2%. Neither is described in any specific detail in this inspection text. The Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans should be treated as living documents reviewed regularly with family input, not filed and forgotten. You have no way of knowing from this report how recently your parent's care plan would be reviewed, whether families are included, or how the home manages GP access. These are gaps you will need to fill directly.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that dementia-specific training which goes beyond basic awareness, covering communication, behaviour that challenges, and person-centred approaches, is associated with better outcomes for residents. Generic training completion alone is not a reliable marker of competence.","watch_out":"Ask the registered manager to describe the dementia training staff complete, including how often it is refreshed and whether it covers non-verbal communication and behaviour that challenges. Ask to see an anonymised example of how a care plan records a resident's personal history and preferences."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect, privacy, and independence. No direct observations, quotes from residents or relatives, or specific incidents are described in the published text. The rating indicates inspectors found no significant concerns, but the absence of detail means families cannot verify what kind and quality of interaction to expect.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single most important driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. These are the things families notice most, and they are observable on a visit in ways that an inspection rating alone cannot convey. Watch for whether staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, whether interactions feel unhurried, and whether staff make eye contact and speak directly to the person, not over their head to you. The Good Practice evidence review confirms that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal in dementia care.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review highlights that person-led care depends on staff knowing the individual, their history, preferences, and triggers, not just their diagnosis. Homes where staff can describe residents as people, not as care needs, consistently score higher on dignity indicators.","watch_out":"On your visit, stand in a corridor or communal area for ten minutes and observe how staff greet the people who live there. Do they use names? Do they stop and make eye contact? Do they appear to have time? These small interactions are more revealing than any written policy."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, responsiveness to preferences, and end-of-life care. As with other domains, the published text provides no specific examples of activity programmes, individual engagement, or end-of-life planning. The rating indicates the home met the required standard at the time of inspection, but the nature of that provision is not described.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities and engagement account for 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness accounts for 27.1%. These are areas where what the inspection says and what your parent actually experiences can differ significantly. The Good Practice evidence review is particularly clear that group activities alone are not sufficient for people with advanced dementia: one-to-one engagement, including familiar household tasks and sensory activities, produces better wellbeing outcomes. Because the inspection text says nothing about individual engagement, you should ask this question directly and observe what is actually happening when you visit, not just what is scheduled.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based and individual activity approaches, including familiar household tasks and purposeful daily activity, reduce agitation and improve mood in people with dementia far more effectively than large group sessions alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to show you last month's activity records for a resident who cannot easily join group sessions. Ask specifically how staff keep that person engaged during the hours between organised activities, including evenings and weekends."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the May 2019 inspection. The registered manager, Mrs Shelly Louise Ford, and nominated individual, Mrs Louise Palmer, are named in the inspection record. This confirms basic accountability structures are in place. Beyond named leadership, the published text provides no detail on management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, family communication, or how the home responds to complaints and incidents.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Management and communication with families account for 23.4% and 11.5% respectively of the themes families highlight in our review data. The Good Practice evidence review is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality: homes where the manager has been in post for more than two years, is known by name to residents and staff, and creates a culture where staff can raise concerns, consistently outperform those with frequent leadership changes. The 2019 inspection cannot tell you whether the named manager is still in post, how long they have been there, or whether the culture has changed. This is one of the most important questions to ask before making a decision.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that bottom-up empowerment, where frontline care staff feel able to raise concerns and suggest improvements without fear, is a stronger indicator of quality than top-down governance processes alone. Ask staff, not just managers, how concerns are handled.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post and whether they are present on site most days. Then, separately, ask a care worker the same question about the manager. Consistent answers from both are a positive sign; a gap between them is a reason to probe further."}

  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 supports people with various needs including dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. They take residents from under 65 through to older age groups.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the home provides specialised support, though families should ask detailed questions about safety protocols and supervision arrangements during their visit. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.