A CARE home where staff members were described as "catty, aggressive and angry" has been labelled as “inadequate” by the health watchdog.

Regent House, in Wellesley Road, Clacton, has been placed into special measures following three unannounced inspections.

A report published by the Care Quality Commission on Friday found the residential care home, which provides care for up 23 people with mental health needs, was “inadequate” overall, as well as specifically for its safety, effectiveness and leadership.

It had previously been rated as good, but has been downgraded as a result of the inspections, which took place after the CQC received concerns in relation to the treatment of people and over whether there was enough skilled staff to meet people's needs.

A report said: “Inspectors found people were put at risk of harm due to the lack of safeguarding processes and effective systems in place to implement improvements where risks had been identified.

“Care plans and risk assessments did not always correlate and identify fundamental information to ensure people were supported in a safe way.

“People did not always receive their medicines in line with the prescribers' instructions. There was a lack of staff trained to administer medicines.”

It added: “People were not always supported in a respectful way - we observed staff responding to a person in distress in an inappropriate manner.

“People described interactions with staff could be ‘catty’, ‘aggressive’, ‘angry’ and ‘feeling of being ignored’. People said this made them feel upset.

“People said they had raised this but had not seen any change in how some staff interact with them.”

Inspectors were given examples of where staff restricted choices and rights as a form of "sanction".

The CQC said it will now meet with the care provider to discuss how they will make changes to improve their rating.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within six months, enforcement action could include preventing the provider from operating the service and cancelling its registration.

The Gazette approached the care home for comment, but the registered owner was not available for comment.