CARE services at a Yelverton nursing home have been heavily criticised in a report by the independent regulator of health and social care services in England.

Devonia House Nursing Home at Leg O’Mutton Corner has been deemed ‘inadequate’ overall for its services in a report by the Care Quality Commission, which has now put the home into ‘special measures’.

The privately-owned home, which is a registered nursing home for older people, including residents suffering from dementia, is registered to accommodate a maximum of 32 people.

There were 22 people living at the home at the time of the inspection. Eleven people required nursing care. The inspector spoke with 12 people using the service and six relatives, 14 health and social care professionals and 11 members of staff.

Following unannounced inspections at the home on April 15, 17 and 29, the CQC has also given an inadequate rating for safety, service effectiveness and leadership.

The inspector concluded that both the caring service and its ability to respond to its clients’ needs required improvement.

There were mixed comments about those who cared for residents —‘some people said staff were kind and friendly, others felt staff could be abrupt and inconsiderate’ — while visiting professionals noted that ‘staff were caring’ and ‘staff appear to be caring and approachable, trying to do their best’.

Previous inspections in February 2014 found the home’s owner, Anthony Bloom, was not meeting regulations in relation to the safety and suitability of premises; supporting workers and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

A further inspection in June 2014 to see if the nursing home had taken action to allay these concerns found four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations, including continued breaches in relation to supporting workers and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

It issued two warning notices, one in relation to the care and welfare of people using the service and one relating to assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision. Two compliance actions were issued relating to management of medicines and supporting workers.

The provider submitted written representations in relation to the warning notices, which were not upheld by the CQC.

The CQC reported that: ‘There has been ongoing evidence of an inability of the provider to sustain full compliance since August 2011.’

Devon County Council implemented a safeguarding process in June 2014 following the CQC inspection and placements to the home had been suspended as a result of the safeguarding concerns. The suspension of placements was lifted by the local authority in March 2015. However, an advisory notice remains in place for social care and nursing care placements — meaning that any health or social care funded placements to the service had to be agreed by a senior manager within Devon County Council or the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The safeguarding process was closed in March 2015 as the multidisciplinary safeguarding meeting concluded that improvements had been made at the service to keep people safe.

The service has not had a registered manager since December 2013. There was an acting manager in post and recruitment for a registered manager was ongoing at the time of the report.

The inspection report concluded that people’s health, safety and welfare were put at risk because there were not always sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff on duty at all times.

There was no formal plan for ongoing training and there were no systems for appraising and supervising staff. The provider did not have appropriate arrangements in place to manage medicines safely. Neither were people’s nutritional needs always identified and monitored.

Nutritional care plans lacked detail or clear instructions for staff about how to support people in relation to eating and drinking. Records relating to people’s daily dietary intake were poor.

The inspector said: ‘People were at risk because accurate records were not consistently maintained. There were gaps in people’s food and fluid charts, bowel, and repositioning and personal care charts. It could not be assured that people’s care needs were being met.’

The report added: ‘Staff said concerns about staffing levels were not being adequately responded to. People continued to be at risk of harm because the provider’s actions did not sufficiently address the ongoing failings and breaches of regulations. This was despite the significant amount of support provided by the multi agency team to address those failings.’

The purpose of special measures is to ensure that providers found to be providing inadequate care significantly improve, provide a framework to enforce powers in response to inadequate care and work with, or signpost to, other organisations in the system to ensure improvements are made.

The CQC said that a further inspection would take place again in six months and if needed, urgent enforcement action would be taken.

The home’s owner Anthony Bloom was contacted by the Times but declined to comment.