Skip to content

Residential and nursing care homes

If you’re finding it difficult to live independently at home you may be considering moving into a care home. But most of us would want to stay in our home for as long as possible. That’s easier to do if you feel safe, and have the independence to do the things you want to do.

Our living independently section has many solutions to help you to continue to live at home.

Living independently.

And there are other solutions to avoid moving into a care home in our Housing section, including moving to be closer to a relative who can support you, moving to a home that's more suited to your needs, or moving into a sheltered housing scheme or extra care housing.

Housing.

As well as this information, the Council’s First Contact Team can give you, or your family and friends, ideas of how you can support yourself and how to proceed.

Sheffield City Council: First Contact Team.

If you still feel you need to move into a care home, you can find all local residential care and nursing home in Sheffield in the directory.

Residential care and nursing homes.

All homes are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and regularly inspected for the quality of their care. Each home in the directory including details of the home's CQC rating. You can find out more about how CQC rates care homes on their website.

Care Quality Commission: What can you expect from a good care home?

You can also download a handy checklist to help you ask the right questions and decide which home to live in, and a list of the contact details for all the homes in Sheffield.

Checklist: Choosing a home (PDF, 172 KB).

List: Care homes in Sheffield (PDF, 486 KB).

Moving into a home can be expensive. You should speak to a Financial Adviser (who is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) to help you work out how to use your money wisely. There is more advice on the cost of care in a home in the paying for your care section below.

Don’t forget what’s important to you! This could be being close to family and friends, socialising, taking part in a local activity, or being able to enjoy time outdoors.

Residential and nursing care homes in Sheffield differ in location, size, the special services they provide, equipment available and the cost. So it’s always important to keep in the back of your mind those things that you feel are most important to you when choosing a home.

Consider the cost of your place carefully. If you later need help from the Council to help pay for your place, you must be living in a home that charges the rate the Council pays for care. Otherwise, you will need a relative, friend or charity to pay the difference. There's more information about paying for care in a home below.

There are lots of things to think about when choosing a home, so to make things easier for you we’ve created a handy checklist of key questions to ask when choosing or visiting a home.

All the homes in Sheffield must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC makes sure the homes meet minimum standards of good service, and then inspect the services regularly. On the CQC you can find the ratings for all homes in Sheffield and read their inspection report. We strongly advise you to read the most recent reports for the homes you are considering, because the standards in homes can alter for a variety of reasons.

Care Quality Commission (CQC): Find a care home.

You can contact the CQC through their website or by writing to CQC Customer Service Centre, City Gate, Gallowgate, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4PA. Or call them on 03000 616161.

A residential home provides 24 hour care by trained staff and is regularly visited by a district nurse. The type of care provided is similar to the care that you would get if a relative or friend looked after you (including washing and dressing, meals and going to the toilet). You can stay in a home for a short time (known as respite care) or live there permanently.

There are special homes for people with a learning disability, a physical or sensory impairment, a mental health problem, or a drug or alcohol problem.

A nursing home provides care like a residential home, but also provides 24 hour nursing care by trained nursing staff. The person in charge is always a qualified doctor or nurse.

For both a residential and nursing home you would get:

  • your own room.
  • help to be as independent as possible.
  • 24 hour care support.
  • help with washing and dressing, at meal times and with going to the toilet.

If you need support from the Council to help you pay for your care in the home you’ll need a Financial Assessment to work out what you’ll pay for your support, and what the Council will contribute.

The Council will:

  • help you to work out if there are any benefits you can get to support you financially, like state benefits.
  • help you to complete a Financial Assessment. This can be by email, post, phone or visit
  • tell you what you need to pay, and what the Council will pay the home.

The Council has a detailed guide on how they work out how much you can afford to pay.

Sheffield City Council: Your guide to paying for social care support in a care home (PDF, 280 KB).

Which home will I like?

We often hear that people find it easier to make a decision about the home they want to live in, after they have paid a visit.

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you and your family and/or friends visit all the homes you’re interested in, and consider visiting them at different times of day.

If you need help to visit some care homes Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care can help.

Their Placement Support Scheme offers free support for you and a family member to visit 3 different homes in a wheelchair-accessible vehicle/taxi.

Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care: Placement Support Scheme.

What happens if the home I choose is full?

If the home is full you can choose to live in a similar home while you wait. Then when a place is available you can choose either to move or stay where you are (this will depend on your individual circumstances).

What if I don’t want to go into another home temporarily?

If you’re not at risk you can arrange support so you can stay in your home until a vacancy is available. But if you’re at risk, or if your care and support can only be provided by living in a home, you will need to live in a different home temporarily until there’s a vacancy in the home where you want to live.

Personal allowance

While you live in the home you will have a personal allowance. This is an amount of money that you must get to pay for personal items while you live in a home. Your personal allowance can’t be used to pay for your place in a home. It should be used to pay for things like newspapers or magazines and for your personal care such as hairdressing and toiletries.

Visiting rights

All the homes in Sheffield should encourage you to receive visitors and to keep in touch with your family and friends. The Care Quality Commission recently gave advice to homes to make sure they know how important it is for you to maintain relationships with people important to you.

Making a complaint

If you have a comment, compliment or complaint about a home there are several things you can do.

  • Tell the staff at the home that you see every day.
  • Speak with the person in charge of running the home. They are usually called the manager or matron.
  • Speak with the ‘residents committee’ where you can put forward your ideas on running the home.
  • Contact the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Call 03000 616161 or write to CQC Customer Service Centre, City Gate, Gallowgate, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4PA.
  • Contact the Council. Visit the First Point desk at Howden House in the city centre (at 1 Union Street), or call (0114) 273 4567.
    Sheffield City Council: Contact Customer Services.

You can also contact Healthwatch Sheffield about any concerns you have. Healthwatch is your local consumer watchdog for health and social care. They’re independent from the statutory authorities and the NHS, and exist to make sure everyone can have a say in how services are designed and run. You can talk to them about your experience of using health services (like GPs, dentists, opticians, pharmacies and hospitals) and social care services (like home care and care homes). They want to hear about what’s working well, as well as what can be improved. Your feedback is used to help influence and make recommendations on how to improve local services.

Healthwatch Sheffield: Share your views.
Call: (0114) 253 6688.
Email: info@healthwatchsheffield.co.uk.
Write to: Healthwatch Sheffield, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield S1 4FW.

What happens if I move into a residential home, and later require nursing care?

Tell the home manager or matron, as well as your family and/or friends. A nursing assessor will then decide if nursing care is required. If nursing care is required NHS Sheffield will pay for this.

What if I am living in a home and I don’t like it?

After you move into a home there’s always a trial period of up to four weeks. During this trial period if, for whatever reason the home is not suitable, there is an opportunity to move home. You or your family/friend should speak to the home manager or matron.

Choosing how to pay for your long-term care is a big decision. You should speak to a Financial Adviser (who is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) to discuss which option is best for you.  A Financial Adviser will be able to discuss how you can help make your money last and let you know about financial products specifically designed to help with paying care costs.

You will have to pay to see a Financial Adviser but they must tell you how much their advice is going to cost (and whether it’s a fixed fee or based on the time they spend working for you) before you see them. The Money Advice Service (a free, independent service) can explain about the different types of Financial Adviser and help you to find a choice of Regulated Financial Advisers. You can call them on 0800 138 7777.

If you’re entering into a legal agreement with the Council or someone else (such as for a defined payment agreement) you should also consider taking legal advice (for example from your solicitor or from Sheffield and District Law Society – call (0114) 272 3655).

You can get free and impartial information on money matters from a range of local and national organisations. This should not be instead of talking to a Financial Advisor, but can be very useful in addition to it.

Get more information about the cost of paying for care from:

You can also check you are getting the benefits you are entitled to:

Being able to make your own decisions about your life is important. When you can’t, there is help available to make decisions for you that are the same as what you would want, or would support you or protect you.

This is often called ‘mental capacity’, meaning the ability to understand or make decisions.

We have detailed advice on mental capacity and how to get support.

Making your own decisions (and help when you can’t).

There's more advice on the directory about getting help to manage your money – from a relative, the Council, a money management company, a Deputy, Appointee or Power of Attorney.

Help to manage your money.

You can get advice on making early decisions about how you want to be cared for in the future (also called an advanced care plan or statement) from the directory.

Palliative and end of life care.

All adults should be free to live a life free from harm and have their rights and choices respected. Some adults are less able to protect themselves and may find it difficult to let their wishes and feelings be known. This may make them more susceptible to abuse or neglect.

To find out more about what adult abuse is and how to report it, visit the Council website.

Sheffield City Council: Report adult abuse.

Or you can get more advice from our Staying Safe page.

Staying safe.

If you or someone you know is being abused or neglected you can report your concerns to the Council's First Contact Team.

Sheffield City Council: First Contact Team.

View all Sheffield care homes in the directory.

Residential care and nursing homes.

You can also download a PDF list of residential care and nursing homes in Sheffield.

Care homes in Sheffield November 2023 (PDF. 341 KB).

Last updated:
Previous Independent living for older people Next Rents and benefits