Bosses at Care UK are confident that there will be no repetition of the problems that beset Mildenhall Lodge when its remaining new care homes open over the next few months.

A spokeswoman for Care UK said many of the staff from older care homes that closed at the same time as the new centre opened had chosen to take generous redundancy or early retirement rather than move across to the new home.

That meant many new staff had been recruited – but in the event not enough had been taken on because some who started the work were new to the industry and soon felt it was not for them.

Care UK’s regional operations director Rachel Gilbert said: “There have been lessons learnt from what happened at Mildenhall Lodge last year and we bought in support and resources from the highest level of our organisation to deliver those changes.

“Some of things we have done differently included home managers and their team spending more time getting to know the residents and their families and understanding their care plans, likes and dislikes before they move in to the new home.

“We have also used the experience gained at Mildenhall to make adjustments in the training delivered to new and current colleagues and supporting the formation and gelling of each new team.

“One year on, although things have clearly improved and the homes are admitting new residents every week, we are certainly not complacent. We continue to welcome visits from the County Council’s quality improvement and safeguarding teams to ensure that our standards are rigorously scrutinised.”

The CQC last visited Mildenhall Lodge in December last year – and said in a statement that they could not say when they would return.

A spokeswoman for the CQC said: “If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We we will return in due course to check that the required improvements have been made.”