A Star Care Services

Updated 10 August 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

Two inspectors and an Expert by Experience carried out this inspection using phone and video calls. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service one weeks’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure the provider available to support the inspection and to give time for them to send through the information required.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service and nine relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the provider, office administrator and carers. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, and a range of medication record and staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures were reviewed.

For Inspections using Remote Technology add:

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video and phone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation. We reviewed documents and made phone calls on 12 and 13 July 2022

Updated 10 August 2022

About the service

A Star Care Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in Solihull and the surrounding areas. The service provides support to people over the age of 65 and those living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 37 people using the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were supported by staff who knew them well and were able to keep them safe and protect them from avoidable harm.

People had their needs assessed and staff used care plans and risk assessments which were up to date and easily accessible. Staff had been recruited safely and were well trained to provide support to the people in their care.

Medicines were managed safely by competent staff and measures were in place for the management of infection, prevention and control.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff treated people with kindness and respect. They had taken the time to develop positive relationships with people and knew them well.

People and their relatives knew how to complain and knew this was be responded to in a timely manner.

The service was well managed. The provider had a range of checks in place to ensure the service consistently provided good quality care.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good [published on 12 December 2017].

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.