About the service: Star Care Rural is a Domiciliary Care Agency providing personal care to adults with physical and mental health needs. At the time of the inspection they were supporting around 200 individuals.

People’s experience of using this service:

We identified four breaches of regulations. These were in relation to good governance, person centred care, staffing and notifications. Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspection is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

People were satisfied with the day to day support they received from the staff that visited them. However, their call times were not always planned in line with their wishes and so staff did not arrive on time. This impacted negatively upon the safety and wellbeing of people.

The overall governance of the service was not robust and had failed to ensure that people received a service that was in line with their wishes. It had failed to ensure that issues were not only dealt with but that subsequent improvements were sustained.

We have made a recommendation about the management of medication. People were supported with their medicines. However, there was a risk that this was not always done safely.

We have made a recommendation about the assessment and recording of mental capacity. People were supported to have maximum choice and control in how they wanted their support to be delivered. However, the polices and systems in place did not support this practice.

Staff received adequate training and support. People were confident in the ability of staff to provide the support that they needed.

Staff told us they felt very much supported by the organisation and they were valued as employees.

More information is in the detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of this service.

Why we inspected: This was the first inspection of this service since it was registered with the CQC on 1 March 2018.

Follow up:

We have requested an action plan from the registered provider as to how they plan to address breaches in regulation and make improvements to the service.

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