Goldstar Care Services Limited

Goldstar Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults in their own home. Not everyone who used the service received the regulated activity of 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 this inspection, the service was providing personal care to 37 people in their own homes.

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

People were supported by regular staff who were safely recruited and who had the relevant training and qualifications to support them safely. There were sufficient staff to meet people's needs and ensure no care calls were missed.

People told us they felt safe and comfortable in the company of the staff who knew them well and were kind and caring. The feedback from people was overwhelmingly positive and demonstrated that a caring and empowering culture was well embedded across the organisation.

Staff understood how to protect and safeguard people. Risk assessments had been carried out to identify the risks people faced. These included information about how to mitigate those risks.

Medicines were managed in a safe way. Infection control and prevention systems were in place. Accidents and incidents were reviewed to see if any lessons could be learnt from them.

Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service were in place. Staff reported having a positive relationship with the provider and felt communication was effective. Quality monitoring systems allowed for the effective monitoring of the service by the provider.

Staff demonstrated a strong level of engagement, a real sense of pride of working for Goldstar Care Services Limited and there was a high level of staff satisfaction. The provider had an ambition to be innovative and put people at the centre of the service delivery. They welcomed any form of external and internal auditing and feedback received was treated as an opportunity to reflect and further improve the quality of the service for people.

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 this service was good (published 22 October 2018).

Why we inspected

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Goldstar Care Service Limited 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.

Goldstar Care Services Limited provides care and support to people living in their own home. Not everyone using Goldstar Care Services Limited receives regulated activity; the CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our service, there were 18 people using the service, 13 of whom were receiving personal care.

There was a registered manager in place. 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.

People spoke positively about the care and support they received from the service and had no concerns about their safety. People who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse because the provider had taken steps to identify the possibility of abuse and prevent abuse from happening. Risks to people and staff were assessed and were reviewed regularly.

The provider undertook all necessary employment checks before newly recruited staff started employment. People were supported by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs. They were visited by the same group of staff who knew their needs.

The service had an efficient system to manage accidents and incidents and learn from them so they were less likely to happen again. People received their medicines safely as prescribed by their GPs.

People were cared for by staff who were supported to deliver care safely and to an appropriate standard. Staff received regular supervisions with the registered manager to discuss their care practice and identify training needs.

People and their relatives were involved in the assessment and planning of their care and support. Each person had a care plan outlining how staff needed to support them. The care plans were personalised to reflect each person’s preferences, choices and lifestyle. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the registered manager.

People were offered support in a way that upheld their privacy and dignity. They were treated with compassion by staff who knew them well and they encouraged to be as independent as possible.

Staff had undertaken training to support people who did not have capacity to make their own decisions. They were aware of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts to meet their needs. They were encouraged to participate in activities that were meaningful to them.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and to identify shortfalls or areas for improvement. People who used the service, their representatives and staff were asked for their views about the service and they were acted on. The provider had a process in place to review complaints and comments to improve the service.