A BRAMHOPE care home has been placed into special measures after it was rated as inadequate.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) dropped the rating for Ashcroft House – Leeds from requires improvement to inadequate following an unannounced inspection in January and February.

The home, run by Ashcroft House Care Services Limited, provides personal care for up to 32 older people.

The watchdog said it was prompted in part to make the inspection by two incidents; one in which a resident died, and another in which a person was seriously injured, raising concerns around the management of choking and environmental risks.

The CQC is currently investigating the incidents to decide whether further regulatory action needs to be taken.

The care home said it was "incredibly disappointed by the recent CQC report" and "disputed the majority of inferences made by the inspector".

It said it did not believe it "accurately represents the high level of care received by the residents".

The home in Leeds Road was caring 27 people at the time of the inspection. 

Sheila Grant, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said: “When we inspected Ashcroft House we were deeply concerned to find people’s care wasn’t always tailored to meet their individual needs or manage serious risks to their safety. The service also wasn’t learning lessons when things went wrong.

“We found that even after somebody had died after choking, leaders hadn’t arranged for people at risk of choking to have their care plans reviewed and updated. They only did this after our inspectors told them to do so.

“People were living in an environment that was poorly maintained and dangerous. For example, the home had left scalding radiators uncovered despite us warning them about this in the past, and hadn’t properly secured wardrobes to people’s walls even after someone was injured by one falling.

“We saw staff didn’t always seek out people’s preferences or consent for their care, which risks violating their human rights. And while we saw some individual staff were caring, people told us staff didn’t always treat them kindly or respect their privacy.

“We’ve told leaders at Ashcroft House to take urgent action on the issues we found and we'll be monitoring this service closely to ensure people are kept safe in future. We’ve also taken further enforcement action and will report on this when we’re legally able to do so.”

Inspectors also found:

• People’s medications weren’t always managed safely, and some people hadn’t received their medications for multiple consecutive days.

• People told inspectors there weren’t enough staff to support them when needed, or to meet their social and emotional needs. Inspectors saw staff didn’t have time to engage with people and there weren’t many activities available that people could do independently. People hadn’t been offered a trip out of the home since September 2023.

• The home’s environment wasn’t designed to meet the needs of people with dementia. For example, people’s bedroom doors weren’t clearly identifiable to help people find their room.

• The service wasn’t always monitoring how much people ate or drank, or acting on concerns about people’s nutrition.

A statement issued by Ashcroft House said: "We are incredibly disappointed by the recent CQC report and do not believe it accurately represents the high level of care received by the residents who live here. We dispute the majority of the inferences made by the inspector, who we do not believe gave a fair and balanced view of our care home, or our dedicated care staff.

"We recognise there are always improvements that can be made within the service, and we are continuously working within an action plan to ensure these are implemented.

"The entire staff team are committed to ensuring we give the CQC no option but to increase our rating at the next inspection, which we hope will be sooner rather than later."

The report will be published on CQC’s website on Thursday, March 21.