TWO Bradford care homes have been put into special measures after being branded inadequate by national care watchdogs.

Sunningdale Care Home, in Heaton, and Britannia Care Home, in Girlington, were ranked in the latest round of reports by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors.

Crabtree Care Homes, which runs Sunningdale, was told in September it had to make improvements at the 41-bed home in North Park Road after inspectors found medicines were not managed safely, that care records were not always accurate and it was not always well-led.

Owner David Crabtree told the Telegraph & Argus then that the home had never had a bad report before and everything had been rectified within 24 hours.

However, in January when inspectors visited again they found improvements still needed to be made around managing medicines and poor standards of hygiene, including beds being made with stained bedding.

A new safeguarding policy had to be reviewed to make sure it was fit for purpose and inspectors observed there was not enough staff to ensure people were kept safe and got responsive care.

People with dementia "did not always have a voice and where they did express their views these were not always heard and acted upon," said the report which also found people at the home got bored and there was also a lack of monitoring people’s daily food or fluid intake.

However, staff were kind and people felt safe.

Mr Crabtree said he felt the report did not reflect the home as a whole and there had been lots of improvements. He also brought in ex-CQC inspectors to give an independent report.

Britannia Care Home, in Thorn Street, has 31 residents who mostly have mental health needs, it too was told to improve by inspectors last year.

During their latest visit, CQC inspectors identified a number of areas where potential risks to people’s health and safety had not been appropriately assessed, monitored and mitigated. Suitability of staff had also not been thoroughly checked but improvements had been made to how service users' money was managed and how medicines were.

No one was available for comment yesterday.

The two homes will be kept under review and if not enough improvements are made, the services could eventually be shut down.

The Mount Nursing Home in Lister Lane, Bolton, run by P&C Care Limited requires improvement.

Its owner and manager Patrick Berry said the home had greatly improved since inadequate rankings last year and was working with the CQC to improve systems even more. It got a good ranking for its care category.

Despite the inadequate ranking at Crabtree Care Homes' Sunningdale site, its Ladies In Waiting home care service in Ilkley got a good rating.

Carlton Manor Care Home in Parkfield Road, Manningham; Laurel Bank Care Home in Main Street, Wilsden; Rix House at Arncliffe Road in Keighley were also ranked as good.

Last month a report showed fewer than half of Bradford's care homes and homecare services were meeting key Government standards.

The CQC revealed that 57 per cent of the homes and providers in the district were either inadequate or require improvement.