A care home has been told it requires improvements after the latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

Rose Belle in Witham received an overall ‘requires improvement’ rating in safety and well-led, two of the five key areas.

The home received a good rating in all other areas including effective, caring, and responsive.

The inspection was carried out as part of the CQC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic where they are looking at the preparedness of care homes in relation to infection prevention and control.

Rose Belle provides care and support to people with learning difficulties and at the time of the inspection there were five people living in the service.

The report said: “The service was visibly clean. The provider had increased cleaning in the service including high touch areas such as door handles and light switches.

“Some areas of the service needed repair which made cleaning more difficult.

“We were assured that there were plans in place to undertake these repairs as soon as this could be undertaken in a safe way.

“People living in the service were monitored for the symptoms of Covid-19. Checks on temperature were undertaken daily to enable staff to quickly identify any changes in people’s health.

“The service was following government guidance on whole home testing for people and staff.

“This included rapid testing, weekly testing and monthly testing for people who used the service.

The service highlighted the care homes hygiene practice saying, “waste bind did not all have lids” and “red bags were not available to ensure adequate separation of soiled laundry”.

The CQC signposted these issues to the provider to develop their approach.