THERE has been disappointment following a recent inspection of an ‘inadequate’ care home in Bradford.

Southfield Care Home, on Belton Close, Great Horton, has been slammed in a series of damning inspections since it was plunged into special measures in January 2021.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited the home last month for a targeted inspection to check the home was meeting legal requirements.

While improvements were identified, areas of concern, including scalding hot taps, remained.

A report from the visit said: “The provider had not demonstrated continuous improvement and had failed to ensure safe and effective governance of the service.

“The specific issues we had raised with the provider at the last two inspections had not been fully addressed.”

Inspectors said they found “continuing breaches in relation to the safe management of medicines and good governance”.

“People's medicines were not always available to them,” said the report.

Two people had run out of the same medicines on two occasions.

Concerns were also raised that risks to people’s health and safety were not always managed properly.

The report said: “A range of risk assessments were in place including information about bed rails, falls, eating and drinking and pressure care.

“However, we found some risk assessments were not detailed and had not been updated when changes occurred.”

It added: “The provider had not demonstrated continuous improvement and had failed to ensure safe and effective governance of the service.

“Although we found some improvements had been made in some aspects of the running of the home, we found continued non-compliance with regulations.”

“We were not assured checks to the building were always robust. We identified several hand wash basins accessible to vulnerable people living at the home where the hot water temperature was at least 50C. This exposed people to a significant risk of scalding.”

However, the report said the manager was “open and honest” and “expressed their commitment to improving the quality of the service”.

Staff were said to work well as a team, the home had a “calm and welcoming atmosphere” and inspectors saw “warm and caring” interactions.

A spokesperson for the home said they were disappointed there was not a new rating as they felt the home would move up.

Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection as they do not assess all areas of a key question.

“We have made an enormous amount of progress where we now feel confident that the home is safe, well run and working towards better things,” said the spokesperson.

“For the first time in eighteen months, we’ve had a settled manager for the last five months.”