Fears have been raised over standards of care for some of Norfolk's most vulnerable people, after three residential homes for people with autism and learning disabilities were branded unsafe.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission warned the company behind two of the homes that, unless improvements are made they could be forced to close.
The inspections were at Walnut House in Dereham and two homes in Felthorpe.
All three homes - which cater for more than a dozen people with autism and/or learning disabilities - were rated inadequate overall and inadequate for safety and leadership.
New Boundaries Group, which runs the Pinetops and Greenacres care homes next to each other in The Street, Felthorpe, has been warned it could have the registration of its homes cancelled.
Inspectors said it was "unacceptable" the company had failed to make improvements after previous critical inspections.
During their visits in September and October, inspectors found measures to safeguard people from the risk of harm were not always followed, agency staff had not been properly checked or trained and leaders had not taken on board the need for improvements.
Inspectors found people's independence was not supported and their lives were restricted.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s director for people with a learning disability and autistic people, said: "We previously told New Boundaries Community Services Limited where it needed to improve the care it provides to people at Greenacres and Pinetops, so it is unacceptable progress was not made.
"If our next inspection finds adequate progress hasn’t been made, we’ll take further action which could lead to us cancelling these services’ registrations, which would mean they couldn’t lawfully provide care to people."
New Boundaries Group was not available to comment.
When inspectors visited Walnut House, off Norwich Road, they found people "were not safe and were at risk of avoidable harm".
Inspectors said the home, run by charity Autism Anglia, was "in a poor state of disrepair" and lax security arrangements mean vulnerable people were "at risk of leaving the service, and wider site, without staff knowledge".
Care records were out of date, while potentially dangerous items such as knives and cleaning products "were found to be accessible without staff supervision".
Following the inspection, in November and December, inspectors reduced the home's overall rating from its 2019 good rating to inadequate.
The CQC published a critical report into Lambert House in Bowthorpe, also run by Autism Anglia, last year and the charity announced that home would be closed.
But bosses pledged to keep Walnut House open and to make improvements.
A spokesperson said: "We were already making necessary improvements to Walnut House and all our other services in Norfolk.
"Ongoing clear action plans are in place to ensure we improve the living environment to the standards we expect.
"We are pleased to say that our manager has now completed their registration and we have broadened the range of training packages for our staff teams.
"We have also adapted our recruitment strategies, ensuring we attract and employ additional skilled and experienced staff, which in turn will reduce the need for use of agency staff."
Council bosses and patient watchdogs have expressed their concern at poor poor standards of care for people with autism and learning disabilities.
The damning inspections follow the tragic deaths of three vulnerable people with learning disabilities at Norfolk's now-closed Cawston Park Hospital, near Aylsham.
Tim Weller, head of Norfolk County Council's integrated quality service, said: "Some services for people with a learning disability and autism are among those which continue to cause concern.
"Specialist services for people with a learning disability and autism are at a premium nationally, and particularly in our region.
"In addition to taking action to address poor performance, the council is actively working to develop more good quality provision for people in the county."
Patient watchdog Healthwatch Norfolk launched a major review last year because of concerns around such care homes.
Alex Stewart, chief executive, said: "Our team has been visiting a number of sites across the county and will continue to publish reports on the feedback we get, as well as drawing all the threads together for a full report on the views of residents and their loved ones which will be published in early summer."
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