THE owners of a care home have been told it needs to improve following a Care Quality Commission inspection.

CQC inspectors found Croft House Care Home in Main Street, Eastburn, near Keighley, needed to improve in four areas, including service safety, responsiveness, effectiveness and leadership.

However, it was deemed ‘good’ as a caring service.

Inspectors said they noted discrepancies with the issuing and recording of some medicines, and said five breaches of regulations were found in relation to safeguarding, staff training, record-keeping and monitoring and assessing the quality and safety of the service.

Safeguarding incidents were not always identified and reported to the relevant agencies, the report said.

Inspectors noted the home was clean and well maintained and noted a new sprinkler system had been installed to reduce the risk of fire damage but they were unhappy that personal evacuation plans for residents were not in place.

There were also gaps in training, but the inspectors added: “People living in the home, relatives and staff were unanimous in their praise of the leadership and management of the home.

"Staff said they felt supported in their roles and said they would have no hesitation in recommending Croft House as a good place to work. Staff also told us they would be happy for a relative of theirs to be cared for in the home.

“The provider told us they sent survey questionnaires annually to people who used the service, their families and other stakeholders. We saw most of the responses were positive and suggestions for improvements were taken seriously and whenever possible acted on.

"We saw people were given feedback to let them know about changes the provider had made in response to their comments.”

Croft House co-owner Vicky Bateman said: “We take on board the inspectors’ comments regarding the improvement of paperwork and record-keeping and appreciate the body of the report does reflect our outstanding status on carehome.co.uk.

"We have numerous testimonials from relatives praising us.”

CQC inspectors also made an announced visit to Affinity Trust Domiciliary Care Agency in Shipley and found the service was ‘good’ overall.