Kirkley Manor Nursing Home

What families say

Families talk about walking in and feeling the difference straight away. There's a settled, content atmosphere where residents seem genuinely at ease. The staff create a welcoming environment that helps new residents find their feet quickly, while those who've been there longer clearly feel at home.

Based on 10 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 2018-09-27 · Report published 2018-09-27 · Inspected 1 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the August 2018 inspection. The published report does not include specific detail on staffing ratios, falls management, medicines administration, infection control practice, or agency staff usage. The home is registered for nursing care, which means registered nurses should be present on site. A monitoring review in July 2023 found no new concerns. The absence of detail means families should ask specific safety questions directly.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the threshold question for most families, and our review data shows that night-time staffing and consistency of staff are the areas where families most often raise concerns after moving a parent in. The Good rating is reassuring as a baseline, but the inspection findings published here do not tell you how many staff are on the dementia unit at 2am, or how often the same faces appear. Good Practice research from the IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review highlights that safety incidents, particularly falls, tend to cluster on night shifts when staffing is thinnest. You should treat this as an area to investigate directly rather than assume the Good rating covers it.","evidence_base":"The 2026 Good Practice in Dementia Care evidence review found that night staffing levels are the single point most commonly associated with preventable safety incidents in care homes, and that high agency staff usage undermines the consistency needed to recognise deterioration early.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for the last four weeks, not a template. Count how many permanent staff versus agency staff covered each night shift, and ask what the minimum nurse cover is overnight for 71 residents."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the August 2018 inspection. The published report does not include specific findings on care plan quality, dementia training content, GP access arrangements, medicines management, or food and nutrition practice. The home holds a nursing registration, which implies clinical oversight is in place. No evidence of concern was found at the 2023 monitoring review. Families cannot draw detailed conclusions from the published text alone.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our family review data shows that food quality (mentioned in 20.9% of positive reviews) and dementia-specific care (12.7% of reviews) are two of the areas families feel most strongly about once a parent is settled in. The inspection findings here do not give detail on either. Good Practice research is clear that care plans should be treated as living documents updated at least monthly, and that they should capture life history, communication preferences, and daily routines, not just clinical needs. Because none of this is described in the published report, you are being asked to take the Good rating on trust. Ask to see a care plan in use before you decide.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that care plans which incorporate detailed life history and personal preferences are associated with significantly better wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia, and that regular family involvement in review meetings improves both care quality and family confidence.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to walk you through how a new resident's care plan is built. Specifically ask: how is life history gathered, who updates the plan when needs change, and when was the last formal review meeting held for a current resident?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the August 2018 inspection. The published report contains no inspector observations of staff interactions, no direct quotes from residents or relatives, and no specific examples of how dignity, privacy, or independence are supported in practice. The Good rating indicates inspectors were satisfied overall. The absence of recorded detail means this finding rests on the inspector's judgement rather than evidence families can read and evaluate themselves.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of positive family reviews in our dataset, mentioned by name in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity follow closely at 55.2%. What families consistently describe in those reviews are small, observable things: staff using a parent's preferred name, sitting down to talk rather than standing over them, not rushing personal care. The inspection here does not record whether these things were observed. This is not a reason to rule the home out, but it is a reason to look carefully on your visit. Walk the corridors unannounced if you can, and watch how staff greet people in communal areas.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review highlights that non-verbal communication, including eye contact, pace, and physical positioning, matters as much as spoken language for people with advanced dementia, and that staff who are trained to read and respond to non-verbal cues produce measurably lower levels of distress in residents.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch how a member of staff greets your parent or another resident they pass in a corridor. Do they make eye contact, use the person's name, and pause rather than walk past? This takes about 30 seconds to observe and tells you a great deal."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the August 2018 inspection. The published report does not include detail on the activities programme, individual engagement for people who cannot join group activities, how personal preferences are recorded and acted on, or end-of-life care arrangements. The home is registered for dementia care, which implies some tailoring of provision. No concerns were flagged at the 2023 monitoring review. The detail needed to assess responsiveness fully is not available in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our review data shows that resident happiness (27.1% of positive reviews) and activities and engagement (21.4%) are two of the areas where families notice the difference most clearly after a parent moves in. Good Practice research is particularly strong on the point that group activities alone are not enough for people with moderate to advanced dementia, who need individual, one-to-one engagement built around their own history and interests. A home that provides a varied group timetable but nothing more may score well on paper but leave a parent with dementia sitting unstimulated for long periods. The inspection findings do not tell you which category Kirkley Manor falls into, so this must be a direct question.","evidence_base":"The 2026 Good Practice review found that Montessori-based and life-history-led individual activities, including familiar household tasks and sensory engagement, produce significantly better mood and reduced agitation outcomes compared with passive group entertainment alone.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what a typical weekday looks like for a resident with advanced dementia who cannot reliably join group sessions. Ask how many hours of individual one-to-one time that person would receive, and from whom."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Good at the August 2018 inspection. A named registered manager, Mrs Sarah Derry, and a named nominated individual are on record. The published report does not describe management visibility, staff culture, governance systems, complaint handling, or how the home responds to incidents. The 2023 monitoring review found no evidence to change the rating. Leadership quality is very difficult to assess from the published text available here.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Our review data shows that management and communication with families account for 23.4% and 11.5% of positive reviews respectively, and families consistently say they want a manager they can actually reach and speak to honestly. Good Practice research is clear that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of sustained quality: homes where the registered manager has been in post for more than two years tend to have more consistent staffing, fewer incidents, and better family relationships. The inspection here names a registered manager but does not confirm how long she has been in post or how the team culture is described. This is worth asking directly, particularly as the inspection is now over six years old.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review identified manager tenure and staff empowerment to raise concerns without fear as the two leadership factors most strongly associated with sustained Good and Outstanding ratings over time.","watch_out":"Ask how long the current registered manager has been in post at Kirkley Manor specifically, not at the provider group. Then ask: if you had a concern about your parent's care at 9pm on a Sunday, who would you call and what would happen next?"}

  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 Kirkley Manor provides residential care for adults over 65, as well as younger adults who need support. They have experience caring for people living with dementia and those with physical disabilities.. Gaps or open questions remain on The home's approach to dementia care focuses on understanding each person as an individual. Staff take time to learn residents' backgrounds and preferences, which helps them provide more meaningful daily support. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.