Nursing Homes in Bradford

Bradford has 35 CQC registered nursing homes. 24 are rated Good, 1 Outstanding, 9 Requires improvement, 1 Inadequate. 21 of the 35 were last inspected more than three years ago.

Source: Care Quality Commission register, kept up to date as ratings change.

Planning and paying for nursing care in Bradford

Why the assessment comes first

Nursing placements carry a layer that residential ones do not, because a health need has to be established rather than assumed. The starting point is an assessment of need, which is free to anyone who appears to require support and does not depend on savings. An assessor considers mobility, continence, medication, nutrition, memory and the clinical tasks involved, and records the outcome as a care and support plan. To set one up, approach Bradford Metropolitan District Council adult social care, which is responsible for assessments and for agreeing any funded support that follows.

The three ways a nursing placement gets paid for

Funding usually arrives from one of three directions. Some people pay privately following a financial assessment that counts income, savings and capital, including the value of a property in most permanent placements. Others receive a council contribution where that assessment shows they cannot meet the full cost. Separately, the nursing element may attract NHS Funded Nursing Care, paid directly to the home, and where someone's needs are primarily health related they may be eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, which covers the whole placement. Ask about all three, because families are often assessed for the first and never told about the others.

Understanding what the fee covers

Weekly fees vary widely between homes and it is worth establishing exactly what sits inside the figure quoted. Ask whether it includes continence products, chiropody, hairdressing and transport to appointments. Ask how often fees are reviewed and what the last increase was. Ask what would happen if someone began as a private payer and their capital later fell below the threshold, since the answer decides whether a second move would be forced at the worst possible moment.

Choosing a nursing home in Bradford and what to check

Making sense of the inspection record

The spread of ratings across Bradford means the report matters more here than on a listing where everything sits at Good. Five Rise Nursing Home holds the one Outstanding judgement, and twenty five others are rated Good. Eight are at Requires Improvement and one at Inadequate, and those reports should be read in full rather than discounted. Inspection findings sometimes concern governance or record keeping rather than the care itself, but sometimes they do not, and the only way to tell is to read them and then ask the manager what has been done since.

Questions that reveal how a home really runs

Ask how many registered nurses are on duty across the day and overnight, and whether agency staff are used to fill gaps. Ask how the home manages pressure area care, falls and end of life support, and whether the local GP practice visits routinely or only on request. Ask how long the manager has been in post, because frequent changes at the top tend to show up in everything below.

What to notice while you are there

Visit around a mealtime. Watch whether residents who need help to eat are supported calmly or hurried, whether call bells are answered promptly, and whether staff know the people they walk past by name. Notice the smell, the noise level and whether anyone is sitting alone with nothing to do. Then go back a second time, on a different day and at a different hour, before deciding.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Bradford
• Home Care in Bradford

Nursing Homes near Bradford

• Shipley
• Pudsey
• Bingley
• Cleckheaton
• Halifax
• Brighouse
• Dewsbury
• Leeds
• Keighley
• Ilkley