Sunshine Care

Updated 6 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 an inspector a member of the medicines team and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

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 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 26 July 2022 and ended on 28 July 2022. We visited the location’s office on 26 July 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 professionals who work with the service. 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 met with the registered manager, deputy manager and quality and process manager. We spoke with three members of care staff, three people using the service and three relatives. We contacted three professionals with experience of using the service.

Updated 6 August 2022

About the service

Sunshine Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides live-in support and personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. Staff live in the person's home, usually for a period of four to eight weeks, and then have two weeks off while a second staff member lives-in with the person. The second staff member will also be someone who knows the person well. The service provided care and support to older adults. The service covers the areas of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Hampshire. At the time of the inspection the agency supported 19 people.

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

People were supported by staff who knew them well and had a good understanding of their needs. The registered manager told us consistency of care was central to the values of the service. Systems for organising staff supported this ethos. People and their relatives confirmed staff were people who knew them well. One relative commented; "We have only had three carers over the time [family member] has been with the agency."

People told us they felt safe with their care workers. Staff recruitment practices were robust. People were supported with medicines safely. One person told us; "[Staff name] keeps all of the medication and makes sure it's here. She makes sure I take them and take them at the right time."

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.

There was a range of auditing systems in place and these were completed regularly and used to drive improvements. The management team had clear roles and responsibilities which were understood by the staff team. People told us they had confidence in the managers. When things went wrong the management team reviewed how things were done to identify areas for improvement.

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 10 December 2019).

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection as part of a random selection of services which have had a recent Direct Monitoring Approach (DMA) assessment where no further action was needed to seek assurance about this decision and to identify learning about the DMA process.

We reviewed 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.

Follow up

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