POORLY-TRAINED staff and badly-stored medication landed a care home with a 'requires improvement' rating from a government watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission criticised the Spode Close Care Home for not providing safe care and treatment for residents in its latest report.

In its report, the CCG condemned the management of the care home, saying there is “a lack of effective governance systems in place to ensure all people’s risks were assessed and their care plans produced”.

The specialist autism service had breached four areas of the health regulations – one area was rated inadequate.

Now inspectors have demanded the manager provide an action plan explaining what is going to be taken to make improvements.

When the inspectors went to the care home they found one patient had no care plan, no risk assessments and no personal emergency evacuation plan.

They wrote: “Although the regular staff were aware of this person's behaviour, we were not assured that new or agency staff would be knowledgeable of how to work with them and manage their risks.”

Inspectors found the manager could not confirm staff were recruited safely, appropriately trained or prove they had the right to work in the UK.

And there were concerns agency staffed lacked in training in epilepsy management.

A relative of a patient said: “Stability and regular staff is so important.

"Although things seem a little better now, they do not seem to have been enough staff who are trained with his as required medication or a reliance on less familiar staff, meaning trips out cannot occur.”

After the inspection the CQC looked at four agency staff files and found that they had not received any training in epilepsy management.

Some medication was not stored at the right temperature and there were gaps in the logs with 17 days missing in June.

Inspectors wrote: “There have been frequent changes within the management of the service, and improvements within the service have not been sustained.”

A spokesman for the home said: “We are addressing all the issues raised by the CQC, including around record keeping, induction of agency staff, and medication checks.

"All residents have care plans in place. We have recruited a new deputy manager, and close oversight of improvements is being undertaken by a senior management team, with regular site visits to ensure these are embedded and sustained.

"We are pleased the CQC report recognised the quality of care as ‘good’, with staff treating residents with dignity and respect, and are working hard to ensure this quality is replicated throughout the service.”

It was last inspected in 2018 when the CQC found that two areas required improvement.