A charity-run care home with 64 employees is set to close due to staffing issues, running under capacity and the projected costs of what would be “intrusive” works, the charity has said.

Fremington Manor care home, run by the major care provider Care South, will close once its 33 residents have found new placements, the charity said.

Residents and staff at Fremington Manor, near Barnstaple, north Devon, were told the care home would close by Care South management on 11 March after a series of meetings.

Care South provides services in the south of England to up to 2,000 people daily.

The charity said it had become increasingly difficult to provide good care at the home for some time, given the building’s age and the nature of its accommodation.

“While Fremington Manor is a beautiful grade II* listed building, the challenging internal environment is generally not attractive to potential residents and the home has operated at some 60 to 70 per cent of capacity for quite a while,” a Care South spokesperson said.

“Currently there are just 33 residents in the home out of a capacity of 60.

“In addition, it has become increasingly difficult to attract staff and have therefore become more reliant on agency staff than we would like, and the Care Quality Commission has rated the service as ‘requires improvement’.”

The charity’s professional advisers indicated that a significant amount of expenditure would be required to keep the home safe for residents and staff and these works would likely be intrusive and take place over a protracted period of time, the Care South spokesperson said.

“We are sorry to say that the nature and extent of those works, combined with the other ongoing challenges that the home is facing, have meant that Care South has taken the decision to close the home,” the spokesperson added.

“To that end, we will be working carefully to ensure that they are supported and consulted, and all residents are found suitable new placements locally and safeguarded throughout the process. 

“The home will not close until we have safely undertaken that process.”

The charity did not answer questions about redundancies or how much it is spending on the home.

Care South recorded an income of £57.7m in the year to the end of March 2024 and spending of £52.36m over the same period.