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A Lancashire residential home which cares for people with autism and learning disabilities is to close after being told to make urgent improvements.

SMS Care Limited, in Blackburn, was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to see if it had responded to a warning notice issued last year.

CQC found Significant shortfalls in leadership remained, meaning people were not guaranteed the right care.

A spokesman for the home said it had decided to shut which felt "unfair".

He said: "The market became very difficult to recruit managers and support staff, nevertheless we have decided to close down the care home and go into a new direction.

"Eighteen years I took care of them with my heart."

The CQC made unannounced visits to the home in June and July. It was looking after six people at the time.

The earlier warning notice had been issued in October, concerning safe care, treatment and good governance.

While the CQC found some improvements had been made in the following months, regulations were still being breached.

The home's overall rating, as well as that for being safe and well-led, remains "inadequate".

Its ratings for being effective and responsive have declined from "requires improvement" to "inadequate", and caring has gone from "good" to "requires improvement".

The service remains in special measures which means it will be kept under review by CQC and re-inspected to check significant improvements have been made.

Rebecca Bauers, CQC's director for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said: "When we inspected SMS Care Limited we were disappointed to find the provider hadn't addressed all of our concerns raised at the previous inspection and they were still in breach of regulations.

"We found there were significant shortfalls with the leadership team and the culture they created didn't ensure people were receiving a high standard of care.

"We found people weren't safe because there wasn't always enough staff to meet people's needs and they weren't always recruited safely."

She added: "People deserve a much higher standard of care than what's being provided by SMS Care Limited.

"If we don't see significant improvement, we won't hesitate to take further action, even if this results in the closure of the service."

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