Archived: A Star Complex Care

Updated 29 August 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was conducted by an inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

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

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short period of notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 10 July 2019 and ended on 24 July 2019. We visited the office location on 10 July 2019.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it was registered and we sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. This information helps support our inspections and we used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and the nominated individual for the service. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also spoke with four people and three people’s family members.

We did not have the opportunity to speak with any care staff.

After the inspection

We asked the provider for an action plan to tell us what immediate action they were going to take to ensure people were safe. Shortly after this request the provider told us that they were going to close the service and stop providing any regulated activity. We are continuing to monitor A Star Complex Care to make sure that it is no longer providing a regulated activity for people.

Updated 29 August 2019

About the service

A Star Complex Care provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. 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; at the time of our inspection the service provided personal care for 24 people.

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

This service was not safe. The service was very shorted staffed, there were not enough staff to meet people’s needs safely; and this made the service unreliable. Staff had not been recruited safely. This meant that the provider could not be sure that care staff providing personal care for people in their own homes were safe to do so. Also, the assessing of risks and the management of risk in the provision of people’s care was inadequate.

By providing an unreliable service, not recruiting staff safely and failing to adequately assess risks people were exposed to an increased risk of avoidable harm.

Most people told us that care staff were nice in their manner towards them; however, the unreliability of the service had a negative impact on them taking their medication on time, eating regular meals and effected their wellbeing. One person told us, “They never tell me they are running late… waiting for over hour and half, it gets a bit much. There is only one number to call and no one answers. They always say we are on the way... you just sit here and wait.” One person’s relative told us, “The times are out of sync, everything is out sync. [Name] gets angry and upset… and it has [a] big impact and ongoing cycle.”

The registered manager and nominated individual told us that because they were short of staff they spent time completing people’s care calls. They had been doing this for some time been doing this for between 70 and 90 hours per week. This left them no capacity to assess the service and plan how they were going to improve the safety and quality of the service they were providing. They were not taking enough action to reduce the risks identified from being short staffed.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. The provider was not able to demonstrate that people had been involved in planning their care and were supported in making decisions about their care. People told us that they were not listened to when they raised a concern.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 06/08/2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the provider having unsafe recruitment practices and not ensuring that staff had appropriate training, induction and skills necessary for their role. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found evidence that the provider needed to make improvements. For more information please see the detailed information in the full version of this report. We asked the provider to produce an urgent action plan to demonstrate what actions they would take to ensure people were safe. During the inspection process the provider decided to close the service and to stop providing any regulated activity.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to regulations on; safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, staffing, receiving and acting on complaints, person-centred care and good governance. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

This service was closed by the provider during the inspection process. We are continuing to monitor A Star Complex Care to make sure that it is no longer providing a regulated activity for people.