St Mary's Nursing Home

What families say

Families describe a caring atmosphere where staff create calm, dignified environments during end-of-life care. The team's attentive approach to pain management and symptom control has brought real comfort to residents and relatives during these precious times.

Based on 9 Google reviews · 0 reviews on carehome.co.uk · most recent 2026-04-10

The eight family priority themes

• Staff warmth55
• Compassion & dignity55
• Cleanliness60
• Activities & engagement50
• Food quality50
• Healthcare60
• Management & leadership45
• Resident happiness55

What inspectors found

Inspected 2022-11-01 · Report published 2022-11-01 · Inspected 4 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Safe domain was rated Good at the March 2025 inspection. The published report does not include specific observations about staffing ratios, falls management, medicines administration, or infection control practices. The home has 56 beds and caters for people living with dementia, a group where safety risks including falls, wandering, and medication complexity are elevated. The previous overall rating was Inadequate, so the Good rating here represents a significant improvement, though the absence of specific published detail means it is difficult to know exactly what inspectors found.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for safety is reassuring after a period of Inadequate performance, but our Good Practice evidence base highlights that safety in care homes can vary significantly by shift. Night staffing is where safety most often slips, and the published findings give you nothing to go on here. Families in our review data rarely mention safety explicitly because they tend to assume it, but when things go wrong it is usually the first theme they raise. Given the home's recent history, we would treat the Good rating as a starting point rather than a conclusion, and verify it yourself on a visit.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice in Dementia Care rapid evidence review (61 studies, March 2026) found that agency staff reliance is one of the clearest risk factors for inconsistent safety practice, particularly on night shifts. Homes that use a stable permanent team, even a small one, consistently outperform those that rely heavily on agency cover.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you the actual staffing rota for last week, not a template. Count how many names appear on night shifts and ask which of those are permanent employees versus agency workers. For 56 beds, you should expect at least two carers and one senior on nights as a minimum."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Effective domain was rated Good at the March 2025 inspection. This domain covers care planning, dementia training, GP access, nutrition, and how well the home translates its knowledge into practice for each individual. No specific detail is available in the published report about what inspectors reviewed or observed to arrive at this rating. The home supports people with dementia specifically, which requires more than general care competence.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good rating for Effective care means inspectors were satisfied that the home knows what it is doing, but without seeing what they based that on, it is hard to translate this into something concrete for your parent. Our Good Practice evidence base is clear that care plans should be living documents, updated after every significant change and reviewed with families at least quarterly. Food quality is also a marker of genuine care: homes that get it right tend to know individual preferences, textures needed for safe swallowing, and cultural or religious requirements. These are things worth asking about directly.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that regular, substantive GP access and documented medication reviews are among the most reliable indicators of effective healthcare in care homes. Homes where GPs visit proactively rather than reactively tend to catch health changes earlier.","watch_out":"Ask the manager how often your parent's care plan would be formally reviewed and whether you would be invited to those reviews. Then ask when the GP last visited the home and whether they come on a scheduled basis or only when called."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Caring domain was rated Good at the March 2025 inspection. This domain covers staff warmth, dignity, respect for privacy, and whether people are supported to maintain their independence. No specific inspector observations, resident quotes, or relative feedback appear in the published report summary. Staff warmth is the single highest-weighted theme in our family review data, appearing in 57.3 percent of positive reviews, which makes the absence of specific detail here particularly frustrating for families trying to make a decision.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth and compassion together account for the two highest-weighted themes in our family review data: 57.3 percent of positive reviews mention warmth and 55.2 percent mention genuine compassion. These are the things families remember and the things that make the biggest difference to daily life for your parent. A Good rating here is encouraging, but you cannot assess warmth from a published rating. Watch how staff speak to people as you walk through the home on a visit, whether they use preferred names, whether they crouch down to speak to someone seated, and whether interactions feel unhurried.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that non-verbal communication matters as much as verbal communication for people living with dementia. Staff who slow their pace, make eye contact, and use calm touch consistently produce better outcomes for distress and agitation than those who rely on verbal reassurance alone.","watch_out":"During your visit, watch what happens when a member of staff passes a resident in the corridor or communal room. Do they stop, make eye contact, and use the person's name? If staff walk past without acknowledgement, that tells you something important about the day-to-day culture."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Responsive domain was rated Good at the March 2025 inspection. This domain covers activities, individual engagement, end-of-life planning, and how well the home adapts to each person's changing needs. No specific detail about the activities programme, one-to-one engagement, or how the home supports people with advanced dementia to stay connected is available in the published report. The home explicitly lists dementia as a specialism, which means the standard of responsiveness should be higher than a general care home.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities engagement appears in 21.4 percent of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness appears in 27.1 percent. Both depend heavily on whether the home goes beyond a group activities timetable and invests in individual engagement. Our Good Practice evidence base is particularly strong on this: Montessori-based approaches and everyday household tasks as purposeful activity are among the best-evidenced approaches for people with dementia. A Good rating for Responsive is positive, but ask specifically what happens for your parent on a day when they do not want to join a group session.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice rapid evidence review identified that homes offering structured one-to-one activity for people who cannot participate in groups report significantly lower rates of distress behaviours. Group-only activity provision leaves the most vulnerable residents disengaged for extended periods.","watch_out":"Ask to see the actual activity schedule from the past two weeks, not a printed template. Then ask what happens for a person who, on a given afternoon, does not want to join the group activity. How much planned one-to-one time would your parent receive each week?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Not yet rated

  {"found":"The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement at the March 2025 inspection. This is the only domain not rated Good, and it is the one that matters most for the home's future direction. Leadership stability and quality are the strongest predictors of whether improvements in other domains hold over time. The home is run by Saroia Staffing Services Ltd, with Miss Lucy Corner listed as Nominated Individual. No detail is available about what inspectors found in governance, audit processes, staff culture, or management visibility.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Leadership rated Requires Improvement is the most significant concern in this inspection for any family considering this home. Our Good Practice evidence base is unambiguous: homes where leadership is weak or inconsistent tend to see gains in other domains erode within 12 to 18 months. Communication with families, which features in 11.5 percent of positive reviews in our data, is also a leadership-dependent function. A well-led home makes sure families are kept informed and that staff feel safe raising concerns. You need to meet the manager in person and assess whether they inspire confidence.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that leadership stability is the single strongest predictor of sustained quality improvement in care homes. Homes that had changed manager more than once in two years were significantly more likely to deteriorate at their next inspection, regardless of their current domain ratings.","watch_out":"Ask the manager directly: how long have you been in this role? What specific changes have you made since the previous Inadequate rating, and what does the inspection say still needs to improve in leadership? A confident, stable manager will answer these questions clearly and without deflection."}

  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 adults of all ages, with particular experience caring for people living with dementia.. Gaps or open questions remain on While the home lists dementia care as a specialism, families haven't shared specific details about the dementia support approach or facilities. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.