Muslim staff at a care home stopped residents eating pork because it was against their religion, a report has found.
Staff at Wagtail Close in Buttershaw, Bradford were told to improve their service after an unannounced inspection found they had restricted elderly residents from eating bacon sandwiches, sausages and pork pies because of their own cultural beliefs.
In one example, a patient who liked to have a bacon sandwich for breakfast every morning and bought sausages and pork pies when they went out shopping, said a number of staff would not help them buy or cook these products.
“This meant that staff were not providing support that was responsive to the person’s preferences and were restricting the person’s right to choice. The person said they had raised their concern with senior staff members but nothing had been done about it,” the report said.
The Telegraph & Argus says that Wagtail Close is a home for people living with physical disability, brain injury, sensory loss and learning disabilities.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) also found staff training was out of date and there was no system to monitor accidents.
Only two staff members had been trained in medicine management the previous year and 21 had no training at all, meaning they were not considered competent to distribute medication.
A spokesman for Bradford Council Adult and Community Services, who run the home, said: “An improvement plan has been drawn up which will urgently address the issues raised by the recent CQC inspection.
“All Wagtail Close care staff have been reminded that their own lifestyles and cultural preferences should never influence the person-centred support they provide to service users.”
In 2014, inspectors were sent into schools in Bradford to investigate claims of an Islamist takeover after evidence emerged of links between staff at those schools and schools in Birmingham that were investigated over similar allegations.
Three schools had been found to have deep-rooted disagreement and distrust between governors”, with attempts to drop Christian assemblies at one school, as well as a refusal to let any men inside a state-funded Muslim girls’ school.