Date of assessment: 28 January to 11 February 2026. Sunshine Care is a homecare agency providing care and support to people living in their own homes and flats. The service is registered to care for older people, some of whom have dementia or physical disabilities. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. At the time of the assessment the service was supporting 28 people receiving personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. People’s care needs were assessed and care plans provided staff with the information they needed to provide personalised care. Risk assessments were completed and provided staff with information they needed to manage identified risk. People and their families were involved in reviews of care and people were supported to achieve desired goals. The service worked well with other healthcare professionals and supported people to receive the care they needed. Staff had Safeguarding training and knew how to keep people safe and protect them from the risks of abuse. The management team were heavily involved in the service, visiting people in their homes and speaking regularly with staff, the people they supported and their families. At the time of the assessment regular audits to review and monitor the quality of care had not been implemented. This was fed back to the management who subsequently created the necessary audits to help to monitor the standard of care people received. Staff felt supported to give feedback and were treated equally. The management team were passionate about providing personalised, high quality care and were visible, knowledgeable and supportive. Medicines were managed safely with a review of the medication administration records (MARs) regularly conducted by the provider.
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Sunshine Care (Rochdale) C.I.C. was rated Requires Improvement overall following a March 2016 inspection, with two regulatory breaches identified: unsafe recruitment practices (Regulation 19) and failure to ensure staff received adequate training and supervision (Regulation 18). The service was otherwise praised for its consistently caring, reliable, and person-centred approach, with strong leadership and high satisfaction from people using the service.
Concerns (5)
criticalStaff training: “some personal assistants had not received regular refresher training in safeguarding adults, first aid, fire safety or the safe administration of medicines.”
criticalSupervision / appraisal: “not all personal assistants had attended supervision sessions at this frequency...no system in place to record when supervision meetings were due or had been held.”
criticalStaff competency: “recruitment policy did not make clear that additional checks were required when prospective staff had worked previously with vulnerable adults or children.”
moderateMedication management: “where medicines were not contained within the blister pack we noted that full administration instructions and dosage details were not documented on the MAR chart.”
minorRecord keeping: “One of the MAR charts we reviewed had not been signed on two occasions on one day to confirm that the person who used the service had received their medicines.”
Strengths
· People told us personal assistants always visited at the time agreed, stayed for the correct amount of time, and never appeared rushed.
· All people spoken with praised the kindness and caring nature of personal assistants, with relatives describing carers as 'absolutely outstanding'.
· Consistent small teams of personal assistants assigned to each person, supporting continuity of care and relationship-building.
· Risk assessments covering nutrition, moving and handling, and environmental risks were regularly reviewed and updated.
· Strong quality assurance systems including care plan and medication audits, annual surveys, and spot checks by managers.
Quality-Statement breakdown (17)
safe: Recruitment processesRequires improvement
safe: Medicines managementRequires improvement
safe: SafeguardingGood
safe: Reliability and timeliness of visitsGood
safe: Infection controlGood
effective: Staff trainingRequires improvement
effective: SupervisionRequires improvement
effective: Mental Capacity Act complianceGood
effective: Nutritional support and health referralsGood
Sunshine Care (Rochdale) C.I.C. received a Good rating across all five key questions at its April 2017 inspection, having successfully addressed two requirement notices from March 2016 relating to recruitment and staff supervision. The service demonstrated reliable, person-centred care, robust governance, and a strong, supportive management culture.
Strengths
· Robust recruitment procedures including DBS checks, two written references, and employment gap investigations
· Staff received comprehensive mandatory training covering safeguarding, medicines administration, MCA/DoLS, infection control, and moving and handling
· Regular supervision and appraisal with spot-check competency assessments for medicines administration
· Personalised, co-produced care plans regularly reviewed and updated with input from people using the service
· Registered manager conducted regular quality assurance audits including care plans, staff arrival times, medicines records and spot checks
Sunshine Care (Rochdale) CIC was rated Good across all five key questions at its November 2019 inspection, maintaining its previous 2017 rating. The service demonstrated safe, person-centred care with strong leadership, well-trained staff, effective safeguarding, and consistently positive feedback from the 75 people using the service.
Strengths
· Safeguarding systems, risk assessments and staff training consistently protected people from harm, with all service users describing staff as trustworthy.
· Staff recruitment was safe with all required pre-employment checks completed and sufficient staffing levels maintained.
· Medicines administration was safe; staff were trained and competencies checked; people supported to self-medicate where possible.
· Staff completed the Care Certificate induction, all required training, and received regular supervision and appraisal.
· Care plans were personalised, person-centred, and included equality and diversity characteristics such as ethnicity, religion and sexuality.