The company behind a Potton care home has pledged to quickly put things right after an inspector found it to require improvement.

Pemdale, in Nursery Close, received the overall ‘requires improvement’ rating from the Care Quality Commission after a visit on March 14. It previously been rated good, based on visits in good in January 2016.

The inspector found Pemdale owners Turning Point had not invested in the upkeep of the building – which looked tired and uncared for – and this was a historical issue.

The overall summary said: “The service was not testing for the virus Legionella and there was a build of limescale in parts of the home which could support the growth of this virus. This had the potential to make people unwell.”

Pemdale’s management was also criticised for a breach of the Health and Social Care Act.

“The registered manager was not fully aware of all the important events that they must notify us about by law,” the report reads.

“A person had sustained a serious injury and we had not been informed about it. These issues constituted a breach in the legal requirements of the law. There was a breach of Regulation 12, 17, 18, of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.”

The inspector did praise the care provided to people, writing: “People went out locally for lunch and went shopping or on errands with staff. The management of the home made efforts to meet people’s daily social needs. People also had detailed and thoughtful end-of-life plans in place.”

In a statement, a Turning Point spokeswoman said: “We are very disappointed to receive this assessment from CQC and have acted swiftly both in terms of action plans being addressed and leadership being reviewed. We have changed our monitoring and auditing structure to make every effort to ensure that this will not happen again.

“We have been working closely with the local authority who are monitoring our improvements against an action plan. We have acted promptly and are quickly putting things right.

“This assessment does not reflect the standard of our services across the country. Almost one in 10 of Turning Point’s regulated services are rated in the top two per cent of adult social care services nationally.”