The company that runs a care home at the centre of abuse allegations has been told to improve residents’ care at another of its homes.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors visited St Mary’s Court, on Deanery Hill, Braintree, and said it needed to improve the nursing home’s safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness and leadership in a report published this week.

Sonnet Care Homes, which runs St Mary’s, also manages the neighbouring Old Deanery, where three former staff, who have been dismissed, have been charged with neglecting a vulnerable elderly resident.

When inspectors visited the home in January, they found that some residents were spoken to disrespectfully and referred to just by their room numbers.

The report stated: “One person told us that they often received comments such as “You’re not the only one here” and “You are one of 30 people to deal with”.

“We saw some staff speaking to them disrespectfully. We heard a member of staff say quite brusquely to one person, “Open your mouth” when they were assisting them to eat and when somebody said they wanted to go to bed they were told by a member of staff that they could not go.

“We found on Cedar unit that people were referred to as a room number by some staff and their names had not been placed on bedroom doors.”

The report added that there were examples of residents being treated in a caring way, such as staff sharing a joke or touching them gently on the arm, however this was not always consistent.

Inspectors acknowledged that robust systems were in place to recruit and select new staff and that plans were in place for staff training in order to meet people’s healthcare needs.

See today's Braintree Times for the full story.

Read here about the changes and improvements made to the Old Deanery since the Panorama inspection last year: http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/braintree_witham_news/12903163.The_Old_Deanery_rebranded_as_the_New_Deanery_as_new_owners_invest_hundreds_of_thousands_of_pounds/