Five Star Support

Updated 3 August 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 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 and specialist housing.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period 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 16 June 2022 and ended on 24 June 2022. We visited the location’s office on 16 and 17 June 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 four relatives for their views about the service. We spoke with two external professionals. We spoke with seven staff including the nominated individual, registered manager, and care workers. We viewed a range of records. This included three peoples care records, including, two people's daily living records and medicine records. We reviewed a range of quality assurance records and training records. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Updated 3 August 2022

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

About the service

Five Star Support is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 13 people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and autism at the time of inspection.

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

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

People were supported to access local facilities and staff supported people to pursue their interests. People received support from a consistent staff team. Staff knew people well including their likes and dislikes. One relative told us, “They all seem to know [person] character”. Staff supported people safely and knew how to manage risks and report any concerns. Medicines were managed safely.

Right Care

Care records were person centred and clearly outlined peoples support needs. Staff worked with other professionals to ensure people received joined up care. Relatives told us that staff were caring and professional. One relative said, “The management team take into consideration what care is required.” Relative told us people were supported to make their own decisions and choices. Another relative told us, “I’m very happy with the service.”

Right Culture

The registered manager promoted an open and positive culture and set a good example for staff to follow. Staff told us they received the training to enable them to support people safely and they were supported by the management team. Relatives spoke highly of the staff team. One relative said, “I’ve commented on how good the carers are with [person].” Systems and processes were in place to ensure the service remained safe and effective. People was 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 13 April 2019) and there was a breach of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of a specific incident. Following which a person using the service sustained an injury. The information CQC received about the incident indicated concerns about the management of care records. This inspection examined those risks. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.

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 Five Star Support 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.