Wotton Rise Nursing Home

What families say

What stands out to visiting families is how settled residents seem to feel here. The general atmosphere appears warm and welcoming, with staff who clearly enjoy their work contributing to an environment where residents can relax and feel comfortable.

Based on 5 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 2023-07-12 · Report published 2023-07-12 · Inspected 2 times in the last three years

• Is this home safe?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for safety at the June 2023 inspection. No specific detail about staffing levels, incident management, medication handling, or infection control practices is available in the published findings. The home is a nursing home, meaning registered nurses are expected to be on duty, but shift ratios and night cover are not recorded in the available text. No concerns about safety were raised by inspectors.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"A Good safety rating is reassuring, but it tells you the bar was met rather than how far above it the home sits. Good Practice research highlights that night staffing is where safety most often slips in small nursing homes, and that reliance on agency workers can undermine the consistency that people with dementia particularly need. With 27 beds and a mix of complex needs including dementia and mental health conditions, you should ask specifically how many permanent staff are on the dementia unit after 8pm. The inspection did not record these figures, so you will need to ask the manager directly and, if possible, check the actual rota rather than the template.","evidence_base":"The IFF Research and Leeds Beckett University rapid evidence review found that inconsistent staffing, particularly agency reliance overnight, is one of the most frequently cited factors in avoidable safety incidents in small nursing homes.","watch_out":"Ask the manager to show you last week's actual night-shift rota, not the planned template, and count how many shifts were covered by permanent staff versus agency workers across all seven nights."}

  Verified by inspectorMentioned, not assessed

• Is the care effective?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for effectiveness at the June 2023 inspection. The home is registered to provide nursing care alongside personal care and treatment of disease, disorder, or injury, indicating a clinical remit beyond basic personal care. No specific detail about care plan quality, GP access, dementia training, or food provision is available in the published findings. No concerns were raised by inspectors in this domain.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Effectiveness in a nursing home means that care plans are live documents updated as your parent's needs change, that staff know what those needs are without reading from a screen in front of your parent, and that GP or specialist input happens promptly when health changes. The inspection confirmed Good but did not record specific examples of any of these. Food quality is one of the clearest signals of genuine care: families cite it in more than one in five positive reviews in our data. The inspection did not cover this, so ask to see a week's menu and whether the home has a dietitian involvement for residents with swallowing difficulties.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies care plans as living documents that should be updated after every significant health change, with families actively contributing. Homes where families are involved in care reviews consistently produce better outcomes for people with dementia.","watch_out":"Ask the manager: how recently was your parent's care plan last reviewed, who was present, and how would you be notified if a health change triggered an unscheduled review?"}

  Verified by inspector

• Is this home caring?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for caring at the June 2023 inspection. No inspector observations about staff interactions, use of preferred names, response to distress, or pace of care are available in the published findings. No relative or resident quotes are recorded. No concerns about dignity or respect were raised.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Staff warmth is the single biggest driver of family satisfaction in our review data, cited in 57.3% of positive reviews, and compassion and dignity feature in 55.2%. These are the things families feel most strongly about, yet they are also the hardest to assess from a published report. The absence of specific observations here is not a red flag, it simply means you need to generate your own evidence on a visit. Watch whether staff use your parent's preferred name without being prompted, whether interactions in corridors feel warm rather than transactional, and whether anyone appears rushed during personal care.","evidence_base":"Good Practice research confirms that non-verbal communication, tone of voice, eye contact, and physical touch, matters as much as verbal interaction for people with advanced dementia who may no longer use language reliably. Person-led care requires staff to know the individual, not just the care plan.","watch_out":"When you visit, ask a member of staff what your parent's preferred name is and how they like to spend their mornings. If the answer is immediate and specific, that is a strong sign. If staff need to check a screen, ask how that knowledge is shared across the whole team including nights."}

  Verified by inspectorResident testimony recorded

• Is the home responsive?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for responsiveness at the June 2023 inspection. No specific detail about the activities programme, individual engagement, complaints handling, or end-of-life planning is available in the published findings. The home is registered for dementia care among other specialisms, but no information about tailored activity provision for people with advanced dementia is recorded.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Activities are referenced in 21.4% of positive family reviews in our data, and resident happiness in 27.1%. For people living with dementia, meaningful activity is not a luxury: it reduces distress, supports sleep, and maintains identity. Good Practice evidence is clear that group activities alone are insufficient and that one-to-one engagement for people who cannot join groups is the marker of a genuinely responsive home. The inspection did not assess this, so ask directly who provides one-to-one engagement, how often it happens, and whether there is a named activities coordinator or whether this falls to care staff alongside their other duties.","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence review found that Montessori-based approaches and familiar household tasks, folding laundry, tending plants, handling everyday objects from a person's past, produce measurable reductions in agitation and improvements in wellbeing for people with moderate to advanced dementia.","watch_out":"Ask to see the activity schedule for the past two weeks, not the planned programme, and ask how many one-to-one sessions took place for residents who cannot join group activities. Ask whether the home has a dedicated activities coordinator or whether activities are led by care staff."}

  Verified by inspector

• Is the home well-led?

  Good

  {"found":"The home was rated Good for leadership at the June 2023 inspection. Two registered managers are named: Mrs Marina Frederick Martinez and Mrs Diana Caroline Martinez. Mrs Diana Caroline Martinez is also listed as the nominated individual, meaning she carries formal regulatory responsibility. No specific observations about management visibility, staff culture, governance processes, or handling of complaints are available in the published findings.","quotes":[],"family_meaning":"Having named, stable managers in post is a positive signal. Good Practice research consistently finds that leadership stability is one of the strongest predictors of care quality over time. Management is cited in 23.4% of positive family reviews, often alongside communication, which features in 11.5% of reviews. The inspection confirmed Good leadership but recorded no specific detail. The questions to ask on a visit are about culture, not paperwork: can any member of staff tell you who the manager is and where to find them, and do staff seem comfortable speaking in front of management?","evidence_base":"The Good Practice evidence base identifies bottom-up staff empowerment, where care staff can raise concerns without fear and are listened to by managers, as a key differentiator between homes that maintain quality and those that decline between inspections.","watch_out":"When you visit, ask a care assistant (not a manager) what they would do if they had a concern about a resident's care. A confident, specific answer suggests a culture where speaking up is normal. A vague or hesitant answer is worth probing further with the manager."}

  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 provides care for adults both under and over 65, supporting those with dementia, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.. Gaps or open questions remain on While dementia care is listed among their specialisms, specific details about their approach weren't available in recent family feedback. You might want to ask about their dementia care programme when you visit. — areas worth probing directly during a visit.