Leeds care home Donisthorpe Hall has received the overall rating of “requires improvement” from the Care Quality Commission for the third consecutive time.

But the CQC acknowledged that improvements had been made within the five inspection elements.

There were 70 residents at the time of the inspection. The capacity is 189 but the registered manager told the CQC that the number would be reduced by half.

The home was rated good in terms of being safe, an upgrade on the previous inspection. Donisthorpe has also improved its rating for caring to good.

But improvement was still required in effectiveness, responsiveness and in being well-led.

Donisthorpe had put in place audits to review the quality of care since the previous inspection. The CQC viewed a range of audits “which indicated they were thorough and regular.

“Other audits identified areas of concern which the provider and registered manager were already aware of and acting against. For example, high use of agency staff reducing consistency [and an] increase of accidents and incidents on one unit. Audits had not always identified all the concerns we raised during inspection.”

The registered manager had told inspectors that the home had “a lot of areas to work on to improve the service and they could not all be done at once”.