A care home in Great Easton has been rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Moat House was described as having a "lack of leadership and oversight" because of "frequent changes of manager", while staff at the home "did not feel valued".

The home had identified where improvements were needed, the CQC said, but a lack of leadership had meant these changes had not been enacted quickly enough.

In the report, the CQC said: "Changes within the provider's management team, and frequent changes of manager at the Moat House have led to a lack of leadership, management and oversight of the service.

"This, combined with high use of agency staff, has impacted on the quality of the service provided and has resulted in a failure to identify, assess and manage risks to the health, safety and welfare of people using the service. At this inspection there was no registered manager in post.

"The last of a succession of registered managers cancelled their registration with us, the Commission on September 10, 2019. Since that date, there have been two interim managers, one being the providers area quality director.

"A new manager has been appointed and due to commence employment at the end of October. People, their relatives and staff told us this has impacted on the culture in the service and the quality of the care people have received. Staff did not feel valued and did not have a clear understanding of what was expected of them."

The CQC said improvements were needed across the board, with the overall rating deemed 'inadequate'.

Inspectors said complaints against staff had not been addressed in a timely manner and that care plans for residents were "not always up to date".

The CQC said it had decided to carry out the inspection in response to concerns raised about a lack of safeguards at the home as well as "unexplained bruising, weight loss, poor recording, and high use of agency staff".

The home has facilities to cater for up to 72 people. At the time of the inspection, in October, there were 41 people using the home.

A spokesman for HC-One, which runs the home, said it had put an plan in place to bring about urgent improvements and added senior staff were "confident" changes would have been made when the CQC returns for a follow-up inspection.

The spokesman said: "The health, safety and wellbeing of our residents is our number one priority, and we take all feedback from the Care Quality Commission very seriously.

"We were therefore deeply disappointed by the CQC's findings from the inspection in October and we acknowledge we fell short of the high standards our residents rightfully expect and deserve.

"We have a comprehensive action plan in place, and its implementation is being overseen by our senior regional team, an experienced turnaround manager and our newly appointed home manager.

"Additionally, our learning and development team is supporting colleagues to make sure they have completed our bespoke and comprehensive training programme, so they have the right skills and competencies, and our clinical team is supporting the team to sustain the improvements already made in how we administer medication. "We are working closely with all relevant authorities and have already made progress since the CQC visited. We are determined to continue making improvements and to ensure that these are sustained.

"We know that we have more to do and we will work tirelessly to make sure we always get things right.

"We are confident that, by the time of our next inspection, the CQC will be able to see clearly the improvements we have made."