RELATIVES of 17 residents at the Firlawn Nursing Home in Holt have been given just six weeks to find alternative accommodation for their loved ones.

They were told this month that the home, which offers nursing and residential care, respite and day care, would close in September.

The home has 17 residents - all of whom will have to be found alternative accommodation Firlawn's staff and their relatives.

A spokeswoman for Firlawn, which is owned by Country Care Homes, confirmed the home was to close.

She said: "You will be contacted by the management," but no further contact or statement has been forthcoming.

However, other residential care homes in the area said they had been contacted by Firlawn staff to see if they had any vacancies.

The home was set up in 1987 by Norma and Chad Doveton. Its latest rating by the Care Quality Commission states that it 'requires improvement'.

It was rated 'Good' for having a caring, responsive and effective service. But the CQC said its leadership 'Requires improvement'.

In response to the CQC inspection in February 2017, the Firlawn management team said: "Our last inspection was on the 1st and 2nd February 2017 at an unfortunate time for Firlawn.

"Our Manager was on long term sick leave and our Operations Director was on annual leave.

"Our final report, which we do not believe to be truly accurate, gave us a rating of ‘improvements required’.

"Although disappointed with the report it made us work doubly hard to improve our standards in as fast a time as possible.

"However, CQC are not concerned enough to want to come back to see us soon, so we have to wait until the next inspection before we can show how good we are."

It is not clear how much impact the CQC rating has had on the home, as its management team have failed to give a reason for the closure.