St Catherines

My mom became a full time resident in October 2017 and passed away on 19th July 2019. When she first went into this home it needed a lot of TLC and following an inspection by CQC in December 2017 it was rated as inadequate. The lift broke down in November 2017 Mom was stuck in her top floor bedroom for over 4 weeks The whole place has now been improved. There is a great activities programme run by a lovely lady called Janet. After some changes in the kitchen staff the current chef is providing good meals. I cannot fault the care staff, they put their heart and soul into looking after those in their care. Mom had such good care in the last three weeks of her life. In 2018 and 2019 the home was upgraded to 'needing improvement'Mom was self funding. In 2017 she paid £750/ week, following increases in 2018 of 5% and 6% in 2019 this went up to just over £836/ week. These increases were above inflation. We were originally told in April 2019 the increase would a whopping 9% but after querying it went down to 6%. All payments are one month in advance, the first months money included a refundable deposit of £3321.43. One of the first things I was told by other relatives was to always check your invoice as discrepancies often occur. This was good advice so check the home owners sums.You need to be aware that there is one month notice period at the end of the stay. This is written into the (6 page)contract and means that you will continue to pay fees for one month after a person has either left or died.Please read the contract carefully before you sign it. Mom passed away on 19th July, her fees were paid up to 31st July (£3645.84) I cleared her room within one week. I received an invoice dated 22 July (only 3 days after Mom passed away) for a payment of £1793, that was £119.54 for 15 days in August to complete the full months notice period this would be deducted from my deposit. When I received the cheque for the remainder owing from the home owner the figure had changed to £117.61 a day for 17 days so a further £200 was taken off the refund. A prime example why you should always check your invoices.Not all homes charge these fees, if you are looking at a number of homes find out what their yearly increases are and if they charge fees after a person dies. There has been a lot in the press about post death fees but there is no legislation governing it, recently the Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) carried out consultation and issued guidelines saying that care homes should charge no more than 10 days. Local Authorities and NHS refuse to pay either any notice period or no more than 3 days, it is generally agreed that self funders (as my Mom was) should be on equal terms.Whilst you cannot put a price on the care of a loved one you don’t want to feel you are being taken advantage of at a time when you are at your most vulnerable. I have been told that running a care home is a business not a charity. I still feel that it is an unfair practice that Mom was charged over £117 per day for a whole month after she passed away and no care, housekeeping or meals needed to be provided.

Insufficient staff , not safe under special measures by cqc and they do not train their staff adequately or pay them

Firstly I would not post a negative review anywhere without first raising it face to face which I did on a few occasions with this Home before deciding to move my Dad elsewhere. I won’t go into the detail of what is wrong here as the home are fully aware of my concerns. Some of the carers here are excellent and I am grateful to Jade, Sabrina, Tracy and Gill who seem caring. The leadership of the Home is poor and they have no empathy for the families and there is little communication to let you know what is going on with your loved one. There were a couple of incidents of real concern which were raised but nothing improved. We have experience of Homes from when my Mom was in one before she passed away and the Care she received from that Home was a world away from this one. Most of the positive reviews they have received on social media pages are from people who work there and I will no doubt receive a very nicely worded response from the Owner following this review which was typical of our experience of dealing with them. Nothing ever changed and they need to take a long hard look at themselves if they want to make real improvements there.The day I bought my Dad out of there he was dishevelled and his clothes were dirty. His nails were long and black and his skin was very very dry. I do not recommend and I would not wish any other family the same experience we had.

My Grandad has been at St Catherine's for a couple of months now. The care he has received has been amazing. The staff are so caring and make sure Grandad is always happy. In fact I've never seen him smile so much.As a family we love seeing the photos as we aren't able to visit frequently due to where we live.I want to thank all the staff for their kindness and care.

not a nice play visited a old lady here wooden flooring not suitable for old people cold bedrooms never been offered a drink when visiting staff not trained just a bunch off young girls food looks like baby food and no table cloths on tables but the manager looks nice and a few older staff are nice but theres better care home around sutton

Really lovely home and lovely new home manager