The team at a seaside care home is "delighted" the service has pulled itself out of special measures to be rated 'Good' once again by the health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) put Clarence House, in Sea View Road, Mundesley, into special measures in November 2020, over concerns including infection control and not protecting its residents from risk.

But following the most recent visit to the service on March 23, CQC inspectors said "significant improvements" had been made and graded Clarence House 'Good' in the categories: safe, effective, caring and responsive, with just the category 'well-led' still classed as 'requires improvement'.

Ellie Johnston, Clarence House's manager, said: "After a difficult 12 months with the pandemic we are absolutely delighted to be out of special measures and with our recent CQC rating of Good.

"With support from residents, families, friends, and the local community Clarence House is now in a great place to move forward.

"As manager I am very proud of my staff team for continuing a high level of care, accepting changes over the last 12 months, and supporting the home. It's now our goal to continue embedding our practices and maintaining our new rating."

When inspectors visited in March Clarence House had 20 residents, who described it as "caring, proactive and compassionate".

The CQC report said: "People told us they felt cared for and listened to and we saw several examples of where their health and wellbeing had improved."

The report said there had been changes made to the governance system that had helped "drive the improvements along with an enthusiastic management team who had encouraged an open and communicative culture".

It was the first time Clarence House had achieved a Good rating since 2016, when it was run by Integrated Nursing Homes Limited.

Ipswich-based Cephas Care took it over in 2018. A spokesman for the company said they wanted to thank Ms Johnston, deputy manager Olivia Barker-Wood as well as the rest of the staff for their hard work.

The spokesman said they also wanted to thank Norfolk County Council's quality assurance department and the CQC itself.