AN Old Trafford care home for people with complex mental health issues has been placed into ‘special measures’ after inspectors uncovered a string of legal breaches.

CQC, England's independent health and social care regulator, has issued Clifton Court, in Ayres Road, with a six-month warning to improve.

According to the its website, the home provides ongoing care and rehabilitative support for adults who may be at risk of exploitation or self-neglect, including people with alcohol and drug dependence, eating disorders and schizophrenia.

The recently-published inspection report revealed the care home, which provides accommodation for up to 32 adults, was rated ‘inadequate’ in three out of the five areas – responsiveness, safety and leadership.

The remaining two areas – effectiveness and level of care – fell into the ‘requires improvement’ and ‘good’ brackets respectively.

There could be a possible review of registration or, ultimately, a call for the home to be shut down if improvements are not made.

Inspectors had visited the home in January to follow up on concerns identified during an inspection in September last year. Earlier that year, the Messenger also reported that an inspector had criticised the home for ‘lack of staffing’.

The most report said: “A gas cooker was in use nearly three months after it had been deemed unsafe to use by a gas engineer. The premises were not clean and various items of equipment and facilities, such as a washing machine and the lift, were out of use and had been for some time.

“Support workers did not receive regular supervision. Records showed that more than half of the regular support workers had not had supervision in 2015.

“At our last inspection we found that Clifton House was not supporting people to become independent; this was partially due to a lack of staff. We also found that care plans did not include people's goals and aspirations.

“At this inspection we could find no documented evidence that this had improved and people living at the home said it had not. We also found that people did not have support plans for all of their identified needs, for example, learning disabilities or continence issues.”

Inspectors found that the home was not compliant with either the Mental Health Act or 1983 or Mental Capacity Act 2005 and was in breach of Health and Social Care Act 2008 in a number of areas.

The Messenger contacted the home's operator, Deepdene Care Limited, who did not comment on the findings.