A CARE centre for the disabled is to be placed in special measures following a damning report by inspectors.

The move comes after an unannounced inspection in May by a team from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

St Ives Disabled Care Centre, at Harden, has been rated as inadequate.

But the boss of Elder Homes, which operates the centre, said he disputed many of the findings and was planning to appeal.

The CQC has told the company it must make "urgent improvements" at the site to ensure people's safety and wellbeing.

Inspectors said there were insufficient staff and that many had not received appropriate training, users' nutritional needs were not always being met, care plan information was poor and complaints were not always recorded or satisfactorily concluded.

The centre caters for about 45 people.

Debbie Westhead, CQC deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the north, said: "Whilst we saw some good caring interactions between staff and the people living at St Ives, we also saw areas of serious concern of which many were unaddressed issues from our previous inspection of the service in November last year, when it was rated as requiring improvement."

Elder Homes managing director David Messenger said: "We have a number of complaints about the inspection and the findings."