A care home in Ivybridge has been downgraded by inspectors after falling short in two key areas, a new report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said.

The CQC found that Ermington House, which provides residential, dementia and respite care, “requires improvement” over safety and leadership standards.

The CQC, an independent regulator of health and social care in England, reviewed a total of 172 care homes across England, rating services from ‘outstanding’, through to ‘good’, ‘requiring improvement’, ‘inadequate’, and in the worst of cases, ‘suspended’.

Regarding safety, CQC found there was “an increased risk that people could be harmed” at Ermington House.

It said: “Whilst we found no evidence people had been harmed, we could not be assured that reasonable steps were being taken to reduce the risk associated with people’s care needs.”

CQC also said Ermington House “was inconsistent” regarding leadership issues.

“Leaders and the culture they created did not always support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care,” it said.

“During the inspection we observed people were supported by enough staff to meet their needs safely. However, we received mixed feedback from people and staff about staffing levels and some people told us they had to wait for their needs to be met.”

The 12-page report also found that “monitoring records did not always show that people were receiving care according to their assessed needs” at the care home, which reportedly underwent a major refurbishment in 2019.

Ermington House has rooms for up to 34 people aged 65 or over, although at the time of the inspection there were only 24 people. The cost of care ranges between £850 and £1,100 a week.

To compile the study, CQC spoke to eight residents and four of their relatives, as well as more than 10 members of staff, including a new manager. CQC said the inspection was carried out following concerns received about poor care, staffing levels, infection control and medicines management.

The report’s findings mean the care home has been downgraded as it received a rating of ‘Good’ only two years ago.

CQC said it had made a recommendation in relation to staffing levels and requested an action plan from Ermington.

Operations manager Michelle Wray hit back at the CQC report, however. In a lengthy written statement sent to this paper, she said she was “disappointed with the overall judgement” following the inspection in May.

She said: “We do not feel that the judgement reflects the service as a whole...we fundamentally disagreed with the balance of the facts presented.”

She claimed the report was “littered with inconsistencies” and accused the CQC of adopting a “care home police approach”.

She said: “We feel that there were only minor points raised around recording of certain care interactions. It is worth noting that there were no negative outcomes for any of our clients as part of any issue raised.”

In defence of staff, she said they had been experiencing technical issues with software at the time, which “(had) since been resolved”.

She added: “We will continue to provide the highest standards of care for our clients and families. And whilst we must continue to work in partnership with the regulator, we will continue to listen loudest to the voices that matter, the voices of our clients, their families and our staff, and those voices continue to be those overwhelming support."