MAJOR concerns have been identified at a Great Yarmouth care home after inspectors said their practices were 'institutional and outdated'.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Avery Lodge Residential Home, in Southtown Road, on December 15, 2011 and found two major concerns about quality and safety standards.

Major concerns were raised about workers after the manager was unable to produce staff records and confirmed no criminal records check had been carried out on a new employee. The manager was also unable to show any references.

Inspectors saw no evidence staff had received any training but some employees said they had undertaken some training.

The report said: 'We were told that criminal record checks were out of date and that the files were not in good order.People using the service are not being protected due to the lack of operation of effective recruitment and robust training programmes.'

Inspectors said the staff had a positive relationship with residents and treated them with respect.

People said they enjoyed living in the home and were able to make their own decisions about how they wished to live their lives.

People also said they were happy with the care and support they received, their needs were met and they were treated with respect.

But there were also major concerns about assessing and monitoring the quality of the service which the home provides.

The report said: 'During our visit we identified a number of areas where improvements are needed. We consider that the service does not have an effective system in place that identifies shortfalls and informs them as to when improvements need to be made. We found shortfalls in record keeping, meeting people's health and care needs, staff recruitment procedures and training needs that had not been addressed.'

Moderate concerns were noted about the respect shown for residents in the home as only one meal choice was available at lunch time and a handbell was rung to call people to the dining room. After the meal, residents stayed in the dining room to wait for their medicine.

Inspectors said: 'The member of staff who was authorised to administer medicines was delayed due to having to attend to the needs of another person. We consider both these occurrences to be institutional, outdated practices.'

Moderate concerns were raised about the care and welfare of people.

The report said: 'The records showing visits from the GP and other health professionals lacked detail about why the visit took place and what the outcome was and we could not find any information relating to this in other records.

'We looked at the records relating to how people's health needs are assessed and met. Again, we found that assessments had not either been written, not kept up to date or inaccurate.'

Avery Lodge was required to send a report to the CQC saying what action they would take and inspectors will revisit the home in the near future to asses whether the compliance actions have been met.

The manager and owners were not available for comment.