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North Yorkshire care home in special measures.

A North Yorkshire care home has been placed in special measures after an inspection by regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), judged it to be unsafe for residents.

Riverside Court, Boroughbridge, was ordered to make improvements and follow an improvement action plan following a negative inspection report in May 2015.

However, during an unannounced inspection six months later, on November 2, 2015, inspectors criticised the leadership, record-keeping and effectiveness of the service.

As a result of not making sufficient improvements and continuing to breach regulations, Riverside Court was deemed 'inadequate' and placed into special measures.

Manager of Riverside Court for 27 years, Stephen Jenkins, said the small size of the care home contributed to the poor inspection report.

In the report, published on January 28, the inspector said: "Staff were not working within a well-led service with effective leadership, robust systems and processes in place to keep people safe and provide effective care.

"The service was still not following the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and staff had not received training about the legislation.

"Proper assessments of people’s ability to make decisions had not been completed when it was judged that they may lack the capacity to do so. There was also no evidence of ‘best interest’ decisions being made on their behalf.

"Record keeping was poor and confidential records were not stored securely. There was a lack of quality monitoring which meant we could not be assured people received the care they needed."

Mr Jenkins said his acting manager, who handles the legislation and bookwork, was away in Australia on the day of the inspection.

However, he admitted he should have been able to cope with her departure and access the information for the CQC inspectors.

Stephen Jenkins added: "We have struggled with being a smaller care home. There are just a few of us but we are working overtime to be compliant on what we've been pulled up on."