Sunnydale Care Home

Updated 20 August 2026

Our view of the service

About the service

The service is a care home. The service had recently increased the amount of people it can support from 5 people to 10 people. There were 7 people using the service at the time of the assessment.

Who the service is for

This service supports adults with mental health conditions. Some adults were also autistic or had a learning disability.

The service is a community transition service where people are supported to develop their skills to work towards living independently in the community.

We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

Key findings

We carried out this assessment on 26 and 28 August 2026 and 01 September 2026. This service was previously rated as good. We carried out this assessment to confirm whether the rating of good remains accurate. This report does not provide detailed information on areas where we found practice continues to meet a good standard. Instead, our findings focus on any areas where the service needs to improve or where we found exceptional practice.

The service demonstrated a positive culture of learning, openness, and continuous improvement. The management team were supportive and approachable. Staff communicated effectively, they used handovers and team meetings to share information, reflect on practice, and support positive outcomes for people.

There were effective systems in place to safeguard people from abuse. People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment with appropriate legal authority. In care homes, this can be done through a procedure called the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), which is part of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We checked whether the service was working within the principles of the MCA and how they managed DoLS within the service. We found that staff and management worked within the MCA. No one at the service currently required a DoLS authorisation. People were supported to have choice and control of their lives in the least restrictive way.

There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. There was a clear staff structure, and staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Staff received training relevant to their roles and they needs of the people they supported. Medicines were administered safely. People had support to attend health appointments and activities such as college, walks and shopping where they wanted.

People’s care plans contained personalised information and were regularly reviewed with people to ensure they reflected their needs. Risk assessments promoted positive risk taking and independence. Staff respected people's confidentiality and sought consent before providing any support.

A caring and inclusive culture was evident throughout the service. The provider’s vision was shared across the staff group. This focused on supporting people in a person centred way to build confidence, develop skills and independence. People received personalised care from a dedicated staff team who were committed to supporting them to live their life in the way they wanted and to achieve their chosen outcomes. One staff member said, “Our goal is to promote independence, for residents to flourish and live as independently and safely as they can.” A health and social care professional said of 1 person, “They have grown their independence so much with the support of staff.”

Feedback was regularly sought and used to improve the quality of care provided. Complaints were investigated. Quality assurance and governance systems were in place to monitor the quality safety and effectiveness of the service. These processes supported continuous learning and identified areas for improvement.

The environment was clean, welcoming and homely. People had personalised bedrooms, and communal areas were well maintained. Appropriate safety checks were generally completed. However, we identified 2 staff members had not taken part in a fire evacuation in the last 12 months. This was important as staff lone worked in the service during the night and may need to support people to evacuate safely in the event if a fire. These staff had completed fire training. We fed this back to the registered manager, who told us this would be actioned.

Updated 20 August 2026

People told us they were happy and felt safe living at the service. People said, “I do feel really happy to be here” and “Yes I feel safe, it is a very safe environment.”

People said staff were kind and caring and their privacy was respected. We observed staff engage with people with compassion and care. People said, “Staff are very caring and very professional” and “They are all supportive and kind.” People were supported by a consistent team of staff who knew people well. Staff encouraged people to make their own decisions and respected their choices. People said, “They respect my choices, when I said I will do my room clean later today they respected this” and “I make all my own choices, I don’t allow people to make choices for me, I do it myself.”

People were supported to identify goals to work towards. For most people goals were focussed around developing their independence. People told us they were supported with cleaning, laundry, shopping, meal planning and cooking. People said, “It’s nice, I do cooking, washing my clothes, clean my room, go out and about, I go by myself. I like being busy” and “The staff are proactive, encouraging us to eat healthy and make meals from scratch.”

People were empowered to choose how they wished to spend their time. People accessed the local community independently or with support. A person said, “I like going to the park, sit down have a cup of tea, interact with the squirrels and nature, I love nature.” People also regularly took the service’s therapy dog for a walk which they told us they enjoyed.

The service supported people to maintain social relationships which were important to them. Relatives and friends could visit the service. People also went to visit and spend time with friends and family as they wished.

People spoke positively about the relationships they had with staff and the emotional support staff provided. People said, “They give me advice, they are really supportive” and “I always go to them if I need help, I can ask questions, they are here when you need them.”

People were supported by staff to arrange or attend health appointments when they needed them. People told us this was important to them. People said, “Staff support me with appointments which is really good. They can then repeat things to me as sometimes I don’t understand” and “If I need help with a phone call, I give consent to staff to handle the situation.”

People and their relatives told us the service was well managed, and staff and managers were available and approachable. A relative said, “[Manager] is always happy for us to contact them. They respect [person’s name] confidentiality and check with them first before sharing information, it is proactive, we have a good relationship with them and staff.”

People and relatives felt the service had a positive effect on people’s wellbeing. People told us, “I feel really positive. I have not felt this happy for a long time” and “All of them [staff] are absolutely wonderful”. Relatives said, “It is a very caring, loving and supportive environment” and “Honestly I am more than satisfied, we have experience of quite a few care homes, and this is by far the best.”