One of north Norfolk’s biggest care homes has been told it requires improvement by the health watchdog.

But the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report for Halsey House in Cromer was more positive than its previous report from 2019, showing signs of improvement.

The latest ‘requires improvement’ rating follows an inspection on March 12, when 66 people were living at the Royal British Legion (RBL) nursing home.

The CQC said: “Overall, we saw improvements in the care and support provided at the service, since our last inspection.

“However, we continued to identify some concerns in relation to people’s medicines management, the recording of aspects of people’s care and the management of certain environmental risks to ensure people’s safety.”

The CQC went on to say there were some leadership shortfalls and breaches of regulations, and they had mixed feedback about staffing levels and food quality. Some residents reported a lack of staff.

The CQC added: “However we received positive feedback regarding the levels of activities people were able to access, and their ability to maintain their hobbies, interests and social networks.

“Staff treated people with kindness and were polite, and we received positive feedback from people and their relatives about the care provided.

“People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive ways possible.”

A relative of one resident told inspectors: “The staff show such patience and kindness – I can’t say enough.”

And a staff member said: “I love working here, it is very person-centred.”

Halsey House was given a ‘good’ rating for the effective, caring and responsive categories, and ‘requires improvement’ in the safe and well-led categories, leading to an overall ‘requires improvement’ rating.

It was a step up from the previous report, when the care home was given ‘requires improvement’ in all categories except for one, for which it was ‘inadequate’.

Steve Barnett, the RBL’s assistant director of operations, said: “Following the CQC report published on May 5 on our care home, Halsey House, we acknowledge the findings in the report, including the recognition of improvements made and steps taken since the last inspection in November, and continue to work hard to address the issues raised by the CQC.”