About Aster Care

Our strategy, mission & values

Our mission is to provide dependable at-home care for individuals with unpredictable, long-term health conditions that require continuous supervision for medical or safety reasons. In addition, we support adults with mild learning disabilities and autism to develop the life skills needed to live alone, along with respite services to unpaid carers to give them a break from caring for a loved one. This offer helps those living with the above in the Portsmouth area avoid or delay the need for nursing home admission.

We train our support workers to deliver both basic nursing and personal care, offering services in blocks of at least three hours, and up to 24 hours a day. Our day and night services enable family members to get sufficient rest, return to work, support their loved ones during the day, or simply take a needed break from caregiving.

We are committed to operating with transparency, continuously evaluating our practices to ensure truly person-centred care. We encourage clients to make their own decisions and take calculated risks, all while supported by our caring staff

Our strategy, mission & values

This is our strategy:-

To work with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health Trust to provide this service within their service specifications and guidance
To familiarise ourselves with the designated clinical tasks lists of the Trust.
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 onwardsH

Our Values:

At Aster Care, we are dedicated to providing exceptional home care services that prioritise the well-being, dignity, and individuality of those we serve. Our core values guide our mission to create a nurturing environment for both service users and staff:

Inclusivity and Respect: We pride ourselves on treating others how we would like to be treated, celebrating diverse cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and the identities of the people we recruit and service in our local community.

Commitment to our Service Users: We offer a truly personal, person-led service with a positive risk-taking approach to enhance the lives of the people we support; both to enjoy their lives and achieve their goals.

Independence: We empower our clients to maintain their autonomy by tailoring our services to support their unique needs and preferences, enabling them to lead fulfilling lives in the comfort of their own homes.

Cultural Sensitivity: Our staff are trained to understand and respect the cultural nuances of each individual, using care plans that align with the service user’s values and traditions, to foster trust in the staff/service user relationship.

Continuous Growth and Development for Staff: We believe in equipping staff via training and ‘open door’ support to carry out care confidently. We look to support and retrain staff when errors are made. Our method of foundation training then individual personal development plans which include service -user specific shadow training promotes confidence, staff satisfaction and retention, and better outcomes for our service users.

Integrity: We uphold the highest standards of integrity. Always looking for ways to improve our service, including learning from our mistakes. We embrace our duty of candour and seek to have close relationships with our staff, service users and their families, in order to respond to concerns or changes immediately in order to build trust and keep relationships intact.

Quality Assurance & Self Governance: We carry out a range of feedback, reviews and audits to evidence the transition of these values into practice to maintain the effectiveness of our service.

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

Managing Director

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

Operations Director & REgistered Manager

Pam has multi-hat responsibilities within Aster Care, overseeing both the domiciliary care service and the business’s overall management. She ensures our service complies with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Her additional duties include content management and social media, marketing, business development, health and safety, payroll and invoicing, bookkeeping, and human resourcing.

As a retired Registered General Nurse, Pam is actively involved with both staff and service users. She conducts complex needs assessments, translating them into clear care plans that enable our team to deliver personalised and effective care.

Pam holds an 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, and an LGBT+ Inclusion in the Workplace Level 2 Diploma. Additionally, Pam provides classroom training in areas where she believes staff would benefit from direct instruction.

Jade mccloud

Care Coordinator

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, working with people who have long-term health conditions and learning disabilities and autism. Jade is responsible for the allocation of the care visits (staff rotas) and managing the online training and other administration systems.

Jade holds a Diploma Level 3 Lead Adult Care. She is also our Infection Protection Control Lead, a Dysphagia Champion and Pressure Ulcer Champion. She plays a significant role in supporting the Registered Manager in researching and planning new training strategies. Jade has recently completed the LGBT+ Inclusion in the Workplace level 2 Diploma, and assists the Registered Manager on producing training for our staff.

Pam Butler

OPerations Director & Registered Manager

Hello [Recipient Name],

Carey Stevens

Deputy Care Manager

Carey has been an invaluable member of Aster Care since 2013, demonstrating exceptional career growth within our organization. Starting as a Healthcare Support Worker, she advanced to Care Coordinator in 2018. Her reliability, strong work ethic, and approachable nature led to her promotion to Deputy Care Manager in March 2023.

In her current role, Carey manages the daily operations of our domiciliary and Companionship Service. She is also involved in staff training and conducts observational visits, ensuring our team is well-trained and supported. Her efforts are crucial in helping the Registered Manager maintain CQC compliance.

Carey holds an NVQ 2 in Health & Social Care and is a qualified Moving & Handling Trainer. Additionally, she has a Train the Trainer certificate, which enables her to support staff in managing PEG feeding and medication administration, as well as conducting observational visits. She also serves as our Dysphagia Champion and Pressure Ulcer Champion.

What our clients are saying...

I want to give praise and thanks to everyone at Aster Care who has helped me since the diagnosis of my husband's Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). I cannot speak too highly of the personalised service they give, especially the careful selection and introduction of individual carers. Pam's extra research into the peculiarities of DLB helped me enormously because, like many family member carers, I am learning every day about things I never thought I'd need to know or do. On top of that, they genuinely cared about my well-being too.

I am so pleased that I was introduced to Astercare, as I cannot believe how much they have changed my life and that of my husband's. After spending quite a few months bed bound in hospital, I was advised to find a nursing home placement for my husband , but refused to do so as I wanted him back home , so that was when Astercare came into our lives. I have had so much support from Pam and Jo, who attended meetings with me and fully supported me in managing to get my husband home. The team of support workers are so caring and kind, they now seem part of the family.

Aster are a lovely company to work with. I have been using them for the last 6 months to provide me with waking night support as I use a ventilator overnight and need assistance with all aspects of getting up and ready for the day. All of the staff that I've met from Aster have been very friendly and really care about what they do which makes a huge difference. They're always very approachable and communication is great. I'm very happy with the support I'm receiving from Aster and would definitely recommend the company to others.

Aster Care provided care and support twice a week with waking nights. This enabled me to catch up on some much-needed rest and sleep. I can't thank Aster Care and their staff enough, they helped me to keep my wife at home so that I could still care for her. All the carers were kind and caring, nothing was too much trouble. Although the carers were here to care for my wife they supported me too. The office team are professional and supportive, they make sure the carers were matched to my wife's needs, they always managed to arrange extra care if I needed it. I would highly recommend Aster Care to anyone looking for care and support for their loved ones. Thank you.

About Aster Care

Our strategy, mission & values

Our strategy, mission & values

This is our strategy:-

Our Staff Team

MUTHU GOVINDARAJAH

Pam Butler

Jade mccloud

Carey Stevens

What our clients are saying...

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