A CARE home provider has been fined £4,000 for failing to have a suitably registered manager in post.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said Four Seasons Health Care failed to meet its legal duty by not having a registered manager in place at Manor Park Care Home, in Hartlepool, between February 27 and September 15 this year.

By law managers overseeing the day-to-day running of care homes have to be registered with the CQC.

Four Seasons, it said, had accepted the fixed penalty notice and had paid in full.

Debbie Westhead, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the North, said: “Our decision to fine this provider sends a clear and public message that failure to meet national standards will not be tolerated.”

A spokesman for Four Seasons Health Care said: “At all times there has been a suitable person in the home with management responsibility, although it is accepted they were not registered in line with the CQC requirements.”