A care home in Kenley, Croydon, has been under-performing and has been ‘in breach of the law’ for five years was left ‘in an appalling state’ according to its new manager.

Acorn House and Lodge’s previous manager has now left following a June report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) grading the home as ‘requires improvement’ in all five categories.

The Hayes Lane care home has now bought in an interim replacement from a sister site in Henfield, West Sussex to oversee a large amount of improvements.

Francis Price, the temporary manager, claims the family of medical professionals who own the home are in meetings with the local council after ‘not being aware’ of the issues.

Mrs Price said: “There’s no excuse for what has happened, this should never have happened and we need to make sure this appalling situation is sorted out. We can’t argue with the inspectors and have been working hard to make the improvements.”

The home provides specialist mental health care, including for people with dementia and learning difficulties.

“The owner is extremely upset and devastated by what has happened, he put his faith in staff that was misplaced and thought things were happening to improve the home which weren’t. He has put his own money in and has risked a lot on the site.

“In recent weeks we have made a lot of improvements, the atmosphere in the home is better and it is going the right way but with the bad rating a lot of local authorities won’t consider putting new people in the home so that is something that needs to be resolved.”

The report by inspectors said that a safe environment was not always provided, and windows were not sufficiently restricted meaning people were at risk of falling from height. It was also found that risks to people’s safety were not adequately identified or managed.

A couple of residents said: “Due to the unpredictable nature of some people’s behaviour they felt their safety was at risk at time.”

The home currently has 21 residents with a capacity of 31 residents.