TWO Bradford care homes have been rated Inadequate and placed in special measures following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Gateway Care Home and The Gateway Respite, which are run by All Saints Care and are on the same Sticker Lane site, were visited earlier this year. Inspectors said they carried out a targeted inspection of The Gateway Care Home, which provides personal and nursing care to older people, people living with dementia and people with physical disabilities “to follow up on specific concerns which we had received about the service”.

Their report said: “The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about management of medicines and governance arrangements. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We inspected and found there was a concern with assessing and managing risk to people who use the service, safeguarding people from abuse, failure to consistently report significant events to the relevant agencies, so we widened the scope of the inspection to become a focused inspection which included the key questions of safe and well-led.”

Both key areas were rated Inadequate and the home’s overall rating also dropped from Good to Inadequate, however it is still deemed to be Good in the key questions of effective, caring and responsive. The Gateway Respite also saw its overall rating drop from Good to Inadequate.

The report said: “The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about management of risk, staffing arrangements, communication, poor quality care and leadership. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.”

The scope of the inspection was then widened to look at the responsive key question following concerns around care planning and complaints.

Inspectors said: “People were not safe. Risks to individuals were not always assessed and appropriately managed. Some staff were not up to date in safety related training. Medicines were not managed safely. There were insufficient staff with the appropriate skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Lessons were not learned when things went wrong.”

Concerns were also raised that the home did not not have effective systems in place to involve people in making decisions about their care. While the overall rating has dropped, the home is still deemed to be Good in the effective and caring key questions.

A spokesperson for All Saints Care said: “We are disappointed with the ratings from CQC and disagree with many elements therein. We have challenged the report and continue to work with the local authority and regulator to ensure the services we deliver are of the highest standard.

"We would like to reassure our residents and families that we continue to deliver quality services and are pressing for a re-inspection as soon as possible. It is noted that there were several issues that we had to address due to historic poor performance in the respite unit, however, this has been addressed by the new management structure and improvements have already been embedded."