About Aster Care

Our background, mission & values

Aster Care was established in Portsmouth in 2007 to supply trained staff to learning disability establishments in Hampshire.

By 2011, we observed a lack of care provision for people with long-term health conditions who wanted to live at home but were unable due to a lack of basic nursing support and 24 hour continuous support only provided in nursing homes.

It, therefore, became our mission to provide a 24 hour care at home service whereby staff could be trained to undertake designated clinical task to support these people to remain living at home for as long as they chose to, or until they die.

This is our strategy:-

  • To work with the Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group (PCCG), the Solent NHS Trust, and continuing health care teams where this service is likely to be required.
  • To familiarise ourselves with the PCCG-designated clinical tasks lists.
  • To use a values-based approach to recruitment, looking at kindness, reliability, communication skills, and trainability where experience or qualifications may be lacking.
  • To ensure that no service user would ever receive care from someone they had not met, and who was not trained to understand their care needs.
  • To ensure that no staff member ever steps over the threshold to care for someone they have not been personally trained to care for.
  • To provide a foundation training programme for all staff but to then embark on a highly person-centred training programme for each service user they will support to ensure they have the skills for that individual.
  • To involve service users and their relatives in the recruitment process to decide who will visit them and undertake their care. This will take place in the service user’s own environment.
  • To be flexible in our approach to providing the service, ensuring it is service user led at all times.
  • To be a responsive service, changing approach, care and goals at the time they occur rather than at regular junctures that will serve only as prompts if nothing changes.
  • To provide an open-door approach to supporting our staff, working flexibly wherever possible to support their employment, again, allowing staff to contact us at the point of need rather than at regular junctures that will serve only as prompts if nothing changes.
  • To be responsive to all areas of concern, addressing issues at the first point they are raised and acting to resolve issues from a minor level onwards.

Our Values:

Commitment to our Service Users

We offer a truly person-centred, person-led service with a positive risk-taking approach to enable people with long term conditions to live at home for longer.

Quality

We provide a high quality, personalised service always tailored to the person’s needs, provided by staff trained additionally for each person they will provide care to. We believe this additional layer of training promotes staff satisfaction and improves staff retention.

Integrity

We uphold the highest standards of integrity and deliver care with an open approach in all we do. We seek to have close relationships with our teams of staff, and our service users and their families, in order to respond to concerns or changes immediately in order to build trust and keep relationships intact.

Teamwork

We work in small teams to provide care to service users. We also work across boundaries with health care professionals from a range of backgrounds, and other care providers to meet the needs of our service users.

Respect for People

We are committed to inclusiveness and actively seek to recruit a diverse team of staff with whom we can provide a responsive service to our people. We encourage growth and develop of our staff, and reward their performance.

Good Citizenship

We are all good citizens in the communities within which we live and work.

Our Staff Team

We are a local business, independently owned and able to respond to local needs.
We are a well-run, friendly and responsive service, managed by the team of people below.

Muthu Govindarajah head shot - Aster Care provides care at home services in Portsmouth & the surrounding area for people with lifelong conditions & dementia.

MUTHU GOVINDARAJAH

Muthu has worked in the combined healthcare sector for over 50 years, starting as a Nurse. He then went on to complete a degree in Applied Psychology and gained an Advanced Diploma in Residential Care. His experience, coupled with a thirst for wanting to improve the lives of others in need and their loved ones, has seen him own and consult for a number of residential care businesses throughout the UK. Aster Care Ltd. was founded in 2007 to meet the demands for domiciliary care in the local community. Since 2016, Muthu has been the sole owner and Managing Director with a clear, committed and wide-ranging vision for the future of the company based on his wealth of experience in this healthcare industry.

Pam Butler

Pam has multi-hat responsibility to run the business and oversee the  operational systems and processes. This also includes compliance, quality assurance,  complaints and safeguarding, as well as marketing, business development, recruitment & training. In addition, Pam is directly involved with staff and service users, using her nursing background to undertake all complex needs assessments, translating them into simple, clear care plans for staff to deliver personalised and effective care. Pam is a retired RGN, holds NVQ 5 in Operational Management, a Diploma in Health & Social Care,  a Further and Adult Teachers Certificate, Level 3 Human Resource Support, L2 Assessors Award.

Jade head shot - Aster Care provides care at home services in Portsmouth & the surrounding area for people with lifelong conditions & dementia.

Jade mccloud

Jade joined Aster Care in 2021 and was quickly promoted to a Senior Care Worker due to her calm professionalism – not just in her day work, but in managing the out of hours service where she ensured the service continued to run smoothly. Jade has worked in the care sector for 14 years, both in domiciliary care and supported living, also working with people who have learning difficulties with complex care needs. Jade will be responsible for the allocation of the care visits (staff rotas) in advance, and assist in the day to day covering of sickness/absence. She will manage the online training system, and assist with staff and service user documentation to ensure compliance. 

 

Carey Stevens head shot - Aster Care provides care at home services in Portsmouth & the surrounding area for people with lifelong conditions & dementia.

Carey Stevens

Carey has worked for Aster Care since 2013 and is a prime example of how staff can join Aster Care and progress their career. She began as a Healthcare Support Worker, then became Care Coordinator in 2018. Proving herself to be reliable, hardworking and likeable, Carey was promoted to Deputy Care Manager in March 2023. She will oversee the day to day running of the service, assist with the training of staff, and support the Registered Manager with the governance needs of the organisation. Carey holds an NVQ 2 in Health & Social Care, is a qualified Moving & Handling Trainer, and holds a Train the Train certificate to support staff in managing PEG feeding & medication administration and observational visits.

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