Archived: All Star Care

Updated 19 June 2021

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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

The service did not require a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that the provider was 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 48 hours’ 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.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We checked all of the information we held about the service at the Commission. This included notifications submitted and safeguarding concerns reported.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff including the provider and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. Records relating to the management of the service, including policies were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, incident reports and recruitment records.

Updated 19 June 2021

About the service

All Star Care is a service providing care to people 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 agency was providing care to 11 people, although only seven of those received personal care.

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

Since our last inspection, the provider had failed to introduce governance systems to help ensure that they were providing good quality care to people. There was no auditing in place for medicines records, care plans or care calls. This meant the provider did not have clear management oversight of what was happening in the service and could not be assured that staff were meeting the requirements expected of them. In addition, the provider was unable to evidence staff had received appropriate training and the records held by the provider were in several places meaning it was difficult for the provider to show us evidence of care plans or systems and processes that they had.

Where people had their medicines pre-packed for them by the pharmacy, no records were kept by the agency to demonstrate which care worker dispensed and administered the medicine to the person.

Risks to people had been identified and guidance was in place for staff to help mitigate those risks. Where people had an accident or incident, this was recorded and action taken in response. Furthermore, the provider and staff knew what constituted a safeguarding concern and as such reported these appropriately.

Staff followed good infection control processes and people told us that staff arrived on time on the whole and stayed for the time they were expecting.

People were supported to access healthcare support when needed and where people received help with their food and nutrition, they were happy with this aspect of their care.

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.

People were asked if they were pleased with the service provided to them by the agency, although the provider did not formally record responses, staff told us they felt valued and supported by the provider and there was good teamwork.

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 20 September 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. We carried out this inspection to check improvements had been made. At this inspection we found some improvement had been made, however there was still further work to be done and the provider was still in breach of some regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 1 August 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had improved and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has remained as Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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