A care home received an "inadequate" rating before closing down and relaunching as a new home.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector highlighted a number of concerns about the practices at Croxley House following a visit to the home in December.

Care home operator Greensleeves says the inspection "coincided with the long-planned closure" of Croxley House, and residents have since moved into a new home under new management on the same site, called Clarendon Lodge.

Following December’s visit, the CQC inspector found Croxley House on the whole to be 'inadequate', including for safety and effectiveness.

Croxley House, which was previously told it needed to improve following an inspection in 2019, was caring for 22 residents at the time of December’s visit.

The inspector’s report states the visit was necessary because concerns were raised in relation to staff training, meeting nutritional needs and governance.

The CQC said its inspection in December identified breaches in relation to "unsafe moving and handling, risk to people whilst eating and drinking, lack of staff training and governance practices".

The inspector’s findings at Croxley House revealed people were at "significant risk of harm in relation to poor manual handling and support with meeting nutritional needs"

Where safeguarding risks had been identified in the past, the report stated the registered manager and staff team had "not learnt from this and implemented changes to protect people".

The report said staff "did not have adequate training and knowledge of processes". For example, in the event of a fire, staff "could not confidently" tell the CQC what they would do, while records showed there was a "risk of people not being supported at night in the event of an emergency".

The registered manager "did not lead effectively and this put people at risk of harm", the report said.

The inspection was only focused on key questions of how safe, effective, and well-led the care home service was.

Croxley House was subject to a police investigation after allegations that a former Second World War Navy Wren, aged in her 90s, was attacked in the home.

The woman was taken to hospital in May 2019 with a three-inch wound to her leg, while other photos showed bruising on her body.

Croxley House was cleared of any wrongdoing following a police investigation after the hospital said the woman’s injuries were consistent with a fall.

Read more: Care home cleared of alleged abuse of resident

Following the publication of the CQC’s report into December’s inspection, a spokesperson for Greensleeves said: "The inspection took place as we completed the long-planned closure of Croxley House, a building that no longer met the needs of the delivery of increasingly complex elderly care. The residents have now moved to a new, purpose-built care home.

"This home is being led by a new home manager, overseen by the divisional director, and we are implementing a comprehensive quality improvement action plan that we have developed on the basis of the CQC’s report.

"The safety and wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority. A fresh start in a new, state-of-the-art building provides an opportunity to provide the highest quality of care for the residents."

The full CQC report can be found here.