Bluebird Care (Stratford & Warwick)

Bluebird Care (Stratford & Warwick) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to adults living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of our inspection visit 47 people were receiving the regulated activity of 'personal care'.

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

Governance processes ensured the provider’s values were centred around people who used the service and their families. This meant people remained at the heart of how the service was developed and delivered. People and their relatives were overwhelmingly positive about consistent and high-quality standards of care which enabled people to remain living in their own homes and communities. Staff demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with their role at Bluebird Care (Stratford & Warwick).

The management team were committed to improving the care people received and recognised the value of research. There was a strong culture of investigating and learning from incidents and mistakes to ensure sustainable improvement was implemented. Staff felt confident to report any mistakes because there was a 'no blame' culture in the service.

People and their relatives were encouraged to provide feedback and the registered manager empowered staff to raise concerns knowing they would be listened and responded to. The registered manager signposted people and their relatives to other organisations and healthcare professionals to ensure they had the support they were entitled to.

People received care calls when they expected them and spoke of a caring staff team who made them feel safe and confident. Staff understood their role in keeping people safe and had information to mitigate any risks associated with people’s care. Staff followed good infection control and medicines management practices and followed the provider’s procedures for reporting any concerns.

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.

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 19 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for Bluebird Care (Stratford & Warwick) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow Up

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

At the last inspection in November 2015 the service was rated Good overall. At this inspection we found the quality of service had improved and was now rated Outstanding in the well-led key question, with a Good rating in all other key areas. This meant the service has been rated Good overall.

The registered manager had been registered with us since October 2010. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The provider and the registered manager were innovative and demonstrated sustained improvements to the quality of care they delivered. They worked in partnership with other organisations to make sure they followed current best practice and high quality care. Systems ensured excellent standards of care were consistently maintained for people.

The provider encouraged people to provide feedback on how things were managed and to share their experiences of the service in creative ways. People were extremely positive about the care and support they received from staff who valued them as individuals.

The provider and the registered manager utilised a range of management tools to deliver person centred, quality care to people. They demonstrated they valued care staff and promoted their learning and development. There was an open culture at the service where staff felt well supported, able to raise any concerns and put forward suggestions for improvements. Staff opinion was listened to, and the registered manager acted on their suggestions. Staff enjoyed their work and were motivated to provide people with high standards of care.

People were protected from the risks of harm or abuse because staff were trained in safeguarding and understood their responsibilities to raise any concerns with the registered manager. The registered manager made sure there were enough suitably skilled, qualified and experienced staff to support people safely and effectively. Risks to people's health and wellbeing were managed.

Staff had the skill, experience and support to enable them to meet people’s needs effectively. The registered manager checked staff’s suitability to deliver care and support during the recruitment process.

Staff worked within the principles of the MCA and supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives.

People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced diet that met their needs and preferences. People were supported to maintain their health.

People, relatives and staff felt well cared for. People and their relatives were included in planning how they were cared for and supported. Staff understood people’s diverse needs and interests and supported them to enjoy their lives according to their preferences. Staff respected people’s right to privacy and supported people to maintain their independence.

People were involved in planning how they were cared for and supported. Care was planned to meet people’s individual needs and preferences and care plans were regularly reviewed. People knew how to complain and had the opportunity to share their views and opinions about the service they received.

People we spoke with were positive about the care they received. One person who used the service told us, 'I am very happy with the services they provide.' A person's representative told us, 'We are all very pleased with the service.'

We found that staff treated people with respect and gained people's consent before they supported them.

Staff demonstrated they understood people's personal needs and the individual ways they communicated their needs.

We spoke with staff and found that they felt supported by their manager and felt able to raise any issues.

We found that there was a system for monitoring the quality of the service, which included customer satisfaction surveys.

We gathered evidence of people's experiences through speaking with two people who use the service. We spoke with two members of staff who supported people.

People we spoke with told us that the care received matched the care that was discussed with them. They told us that they were involved in planning the care and that reviews were held to reassess their needs. We saw that people and family members had provided information on their care plan.

We saw that the care plans were person centred and reflected people's needs. This meant that the care plan was based on the needs of the person. We saw that people's needs were reassessed and where necessary the care plan was updated. We saw that people's like and dislikes were clear within their care plans.

People we spoke with told us that staff were friendly and supportive. We saw their were regular members of care staff who provided people's personal care. Continuity of staff should mean that people receive their care consistently as staff have an increased understanding of people's needs.

We spoke with staff about what they thought abuse was and they showed they had a good awareness of the importance of keeping people safe. They understood their responsibilities for reporting any concerns regarding abuse.

We saw records were kept up to date and stored securely.