Starry Care

Updated 16 December 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 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 17 November 2022 and ended on 18 November 2022. We made telephone calls to people and relatives on 17 November 2022 and visited the office location on 18 November 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 people who used the service and 4 relatives to gather feedback on their experience of care provided. We spoke with the provider and care coordinator and received feedback from 7 staff which included senior care staff and care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and one person’s medicine records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment processes. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures, training records and meeting minutes were reviewed.

Updated 16 December 2022

About the service

Starry Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who uses domiciliary care services receive 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 inspection there were 16 people who received personal care support.

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

People received safe care. Risk assessments were in place and reviewed regularly and as people’s needs changed. Staff received training in safeguarding and what to do if concerns arose. Safe recruitment practices were followed to ensure staff were suitable for their roles.

People received their support calls on time and staff stayed for the length of time they were supposed to and completed the tasks people needed support with. People were informed if staff were running late for any reason. Medicines support was provided safely if this was required. Infection control measures were in place including staff use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

The provider monitored the quality of the service and they were developing documentation to record this more effectively. An electronic care planning system was being embedded into practice to support their oversight. The provider was keen to embed a supportive and learning culture in order to continuously improve the running of the service and the support people received in their homes. The provider was aware of their legal responsibilities and worked in an open and transparent way.

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.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 5 February 2020).

At the last inspection there was a breach of regulation 17 (Good governance) because the provider did not have effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and ensure staff were supported fully in their roles. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Starry Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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