3 August 2017
During a routine inspection
STARS is a family run service which supported one person at home with their personal care at the time of our inspection. To protect the person’s identity we have not used any direct quotes or specific details of the person’s health care needs.
There was a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We found people received safe care. Staff had good knowledge in how they were to protect people from harm. We found staff recognised the signs of abuse and knew how to report this. There were risk assessments in place and staff understood the importance of these. Staff took actions to reduce the risk to people without taking away people’s right to make decisions about their care. The person’s relative told us staff supported their family member to stay staff with appropriate numbers of staff to do this. Staff told us that the small service meant they were able to deliver safe care and support to people as they knew people’s needs well. There were no people being supported with their medicines at the time of our inspection.
People received care and support which met their needs and preferences and in line with their consent and agreement and staff understood the importance of this. There were no people being supported with their eating and drinking at the time of our inspection. Staff were aware of external healthcare professionals input and how this affected the support they provided.
Views and decisions had made about the person’s care were listened to and staff acted upon these in-line with their preferences. A relative felt the staff team treated their family members in a kind and friendly way, which was done with respect.
The provider had given those who used the service information about how to raise a complaint should they need to. A relative we spoke with had not needed to raise any concerns but knew how to do this should they need to. The provider had not received any complaints at the time of our inspection. The registered manager told us that they had regular contact with people and their family member’s which they felt maintained good communication. The registered manager explained this reduced the likelihood of people needing to complain about the service provision.
Staff felt supported by the registered manager to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, through training and daily contact. We found checks the registered manager completed on the service focused upon the experiences of people so the service developed further as people’s needs changed.