Mountdale Nursing Home

What families say

Families speak of finding unexpected comfort here during difficult times. They describe staff who seem to instinctively know when to offer a reassuring word or simply be present. The atmosphere feels calm and supportive, helping both residents and their loved ones feel less alone in their journey.

Based on 13 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth40
• Compassion & dignity40
• Cleanliness40
• Activities & engagement35
• Food quality35
• Healthcare38
• Management & leadership30
• Resident happiness35

What inspectors found

Inspected 2024-01-24 · Report published 2024-01-24 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The inspection data provided does not include a published rating or detailed findings for the Safe domain at the January 2024 inspection. The overall Inadequate rating indicates serious concerns were identified, but the specific findings relating to safety, staffing, medicines management, and infection control are not available in the text provided for this report. This means it is not possible to confirm whether your parent would be physically safe here based on the published evidence alone. An Inadequate overall rating frequently reflects failures in safe care, including areas such as falls management, medicines errors, or inadequate staffing. You should treat the absence of published detail as a reason to ask more questions, not fewer.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Safety is the foundation that everything else depends on. Good Practice research is clear that night staffing ratios and low reliance on agency staff are two of the most reliable predictors of whether a care home is physically safe after hours. Because the published inspection findings do not contain specific observational detail for this domain, you cannot assume safety standards were adequate. The Inadequate overall rating means inspectors found the home was not meeting required standards at the time of their visit. If you visit, ask to see the accident and incident log for the past three months and ask how many falls have occurred, what happened afterwards, and whether any changes to care plans followed.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that safety failures in care homes most commonly emerge at night, when staffing is thinnest, and that homes with high agency use show weaker continuity of safe practice because staff do not know individual residents well enough to spot changes in condition.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how many permanent staff are on the night shift for your 24 beds, and how many nights in the last month were covered by agency staff? Ask to see the actual rota, not a template."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"No domain-level rating or detailed findings are available for the Effective domain from the inspection data provided. This covers whether staff know how to care for your parent, including dementia training, how care plans are written and reviewed, whether your parent sees a GP when needed, and whether food meets their dietary needs. Without published findings, it is not possible to confirm whether any of these areas were functioning well or poorly at the time of inspection. The overall Inadequate rating means something significant was not working. Whether that included failures in training, care planning, or healthcare access is not confirmed by the data available here.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"For families choosing a home for a parent with dementia, effective care means staff who know your parent as an individual, not just as a set of needs recorded on paper. Good Practice research across 61 studies found that care plans treated as living documents, updated after every significant change, are one of the clearest markers of a home that genuinely tailors care rather than delivering it by routine. Food quality is also a direct signal: homes that get food right tend to be paying attention to the person, not just the process. Because the published findings here do not confirm any of this, ask for specific evidence before drawing conclusions.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that dementia training which goes beyond basic awareness, covering non-verbal communication and behaviour as communication, is associated with measurably better care outcomes. The presence or absence of this training is one of the first things to check in any home caring for people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: when was each care plan for a current resident last reviewed, and can you show me an example of how a care plan was updated after a resident's condition changed? A home that cannot answer this specifically is a concern."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"No domain-level rating or detailed findings are available for the Caring domain from the inspection data provided. This is the domain that covers whether staff are genuinely kind, whether your parent is addressed by their preferred name, whether they are rushed or given time, and whether their dignity and privacy are respected. Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in our family review data, mentioned in 57.3% of positive reviews. The absence of any published evidence here means it is not possible to say whether the people living at Mountdale Nursing Home experience warmth and dignity in their daily care.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Kindness is not an add-on to care; it is care. In our analysis of over 3,600 positive family reviews across UK care homes, staff warmth (57.3%) and compassion and dignity (55.2%) are the two things families mention most when they say a home is good. When inspectors observe a caring home, they typically record specific things: staff using preferred names in corridors, sitting with residents rather than moving past them, and responding calmly to distress. None of those observations are available here. That gap is itself important information. On any visit, watch how staff interact with your parent's potential neighbours in the first ten minutes. What you see unprompted is more reliable than anything you are told.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research shows that non-verbal communication matters as much as spoken words for people living with dementia, and that staff who slow down, make eye contact, and position themselves at the same level as a seated resident produce measurably lower levels of distress in the people they care for.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in a corridor or common area. Do they stop, acknowledge the person, and use their name? Or do they walk past? This single behaviour is one of the most reliable indicators of a caring culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"No domain-level rating or detailed findings are available for the Responsive domain from the inspection data provided. This domain covers whether your parent would have a life here: whether activities are meaningful and individual rather than generic group sessions, whether their personal history and preferences shape their daily routine, and whether end-of-life wishes are recorded and respected. Mountdale Nursing Home lists dementia among its specialisms, which means it should be able to demonstrate how it meets the specific engagement and stimulation needs of people living with dementia. That evidence is not available from the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Resident happiness is one of our eight family review themes, weighted at 27.1%, and activities and engagement at 21.4%. Together they reflect what families describe as the difference between a parent who is existing in a home and one who is actually living there. Good Practice research is clear that people with dementia benefit from individual, tailored engagement, including everyday tasks like folding, sorting, or preparing food, rather than group activities alone. For people whose dementia has progressed to a point where group activities are difficult, one-to-one engagement becomes essential. Ask specifically what happens for your parent on a quiet afternoon when no organised activity is scheduled.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett evidence review found that Montessori-based approaches, which use familiar everyday tasks to create purposeful activity, show consistent positive effects on wellbeing for people with dementia, and that homes relying only on group activities leave the most isolated residents without meaningful engagement.","watch_out":"Ask the activities coordinator to describe what your parent would actually do on a typical Tuesday afternoon, including what would happen if they did not want to join a group session. If the answer is vague or defaults to television, that is a concern."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"No domain-level rating is published for the Well-led domain from the inspection data provided. However, the overall Inadequate rating, combined with the recorded decline from a previous Good rating, points to significant leadership and governance concerns at the time of inspection. The registered managers listed are Mr Akhil Dogar and Mr Nathaniel Dogar, with Mr Nathaniel Dogar also listed as the Nominated Individual. Having the Nominated Individual and a registered manager be the same person can concentrate oversight in a single role, which is worth exploring. A later assessment dated November 2024 appears to have resulted in Good ratings across all five domains, but that assessment is not the basis of this report and should be verified directly with the regulator.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Our family review data shows that management and leadership features in 23.4% of positive reviews, and families consistently describe visible, named managers who know residents personally as a marker of confidence. An Inadequate rating that followed a Good rating suggests something changed in the running of this home. Whether that has been resolved is the central question. Good Practice research is clear that a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear, and where the manager acts on those concerns visibly, is what separates homes that improve from those that do not. Ask the manager directly what went wrong and what is different now.","evidence_base":"The Leeds Beckett rapid evidence review found that leadership stability, specifically a consistent registered manager who is present and known to staff and residents, is one of the most reliable predictors of sustained care quality. Homes where management changes frequently, or where oversight is diffuse, show greater variability in care outcomes.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how long have you been in post, and what specifically changed between the Inadequate rating and the most recent assessment? Ask for the improvement plan in writing. A manager who cannot or will not share this is a serious warning sign."}

  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 Mountdale supports adults of all ages with complex needs including dementia, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, eating disorders and substance misuse challenges. Their on-site nursing team provides round-the-clock clinical care.. Gaps or open questions remain on For those living with dementia, the nursing team brings specialist understanding to each person's unique needs. Staff work closely with families to maintain routines and connections that matter. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.