Troubled Southfield Care Home in Great Horton shuts down

Documents on Companies House show HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) petitioned on May 10 for Southfield Helath Care Limited, owners of Southfield Care Home in Great Horton, to be wound up.

A court hearing on August 3 ordered the company be wound up under the provisions of the Insolvency Act. 

The windows of Southfield Care Home have been boarded up

A winding up order is an instruction from the court to close down a company and liquidate its assets.

This follows a winding up petition made by a creditor, which normally follows a series of unsuccessful attempts to recover their money.

When the Telegraph & Argus visited the care home, on Belton Close, yesterday it was boarded up and large boxes were being taken from the premises.

Concrete blocks have been placed outside the entrance to the home.

The Telegraph & Argus made several attempts to contact the owner of the home but did not receive a response.

Items were being taken from the premises

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the recent closure of Southfield Care Home and over the recent months we have provided support to the home’s owners, Southfield Health Care Limited.”

Council teams assisted in moving residents to alternative care homes.

Southfield, which was rated ‘inadequate’ before its closure, was slammed in a series of damning inspections from plunged into special measures in January 2021.

A follow-up inspection in June that year again revealed a worrying catalogue of problems.

Inspectors said they saw an incident where two people became distressed and ended up hitting each other, with no staff present to intervene; one resident who walked around the dining area “repeatedly taking food from other people’s meals”; a clinical waste bin overflowing on both days of the inspection and “multiple reports” of people having injuries when the cause was unknown.

The report said building checks were not robust and maintenance issues were not followed up properly.

A report in January of this year found the home remained in breach of regulations and people “did not receive safe care”.

It said: "At this inspection we found the provider had made some improvements, but people continued to be at risk of harm.”

Then a report from an inspection in April said: “Despite highlighting shortfalls at the last three inspections, the provider had failed to take enough action and people continued to be at risk of harm and poor care.”

Some improvements had been made by June, but areas of concern remained.

“The provider had not demonstrated continuous improvement and had failed to ensure safe and effective governance of the service,” said the report.