We carried out a review of the data available to us about Bluebird Care (Hillingdon) on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Bluebird Care (Hillingdon), you can give feedback on this service.
Bluebird Care (Hillingdon) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to adults living in their own homes in the community. Not everyone using Bluebird Care (Hillingdon) receives regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection the service was providing care to 50 people.
People’s experience of using this service
People felt safe, were happy with their care and support and told us staff were caring. People received consistent care from the same staff so they could develop trusting relationships with them. People told us staff treated them with respect and dignity.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service, recognise when improvements were required and take action in response to these. However, the service had not always informed the CQC of important events, as required by the regulations.
People received care and support to meet their needs. People had care and risk management plans in place which set out their likes and preferences for their care and their communication needs.
People were supported to be healthy and to access healthcare services. This included some trained staff providing an additional service to help people measure and monitor their health on a regular basis.
Staff supported people with their food and drinks appropriately, if they required this. Staff received training, support and supervision to provide care and meet people’s needs.
The provider had a suitable process in place for handling complaints and responding to these in an appropriate manner. 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.
People, relatives and staff were able to give feedback and felt they were listened to when they did. The provider used this to develop the service. The service worked with other agencies to make sure people received joined up care.
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 August 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Bluebird (Hillingdon) provides a range of services to people in their own home including personal care. People using the service had a range of needs such as physical disabilities and dementia. The service offered support to people over the age of 18 years old. At the time of our inspection 51 people were receiving personal care in their home. The care had either been funded by their local authority or people were paying for their own care.
There was a registered manager in post. 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 last inspection took place 16 and 17 May 2016 when we rated the overall service and Safe and Well led Requires Improvement. At this inspection we found improvements had been made to the two areas which we had identified as needing improvement, at our last inspection. These were in relation to medicines management and the quality assurance systems.
The provider had systems to monitor the quality of the service that people received and to make improvements. Audits and checks were carried out to monitor quality in the service and we saw these were up to date.
People received the medicines they needed safely and regular checks on medicine administration records were carried out to ensure care workers recorded each time they administered medicines.
People gave us complimentary comments about the service they received. People felt happy and well looked after.
People's needs were assessed and care was planned to meet these needs. People's needs were regularly reviewed.
People were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts and were assisted by staff to access healthcare services when needed.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the systems in the service supported this practice.
There were appropriate procedures to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and the staff were aware of these.
Staff had access to the training and support they needed. Recruitment checks were carried out to make sure staff were suitable to work with people using the service.
The provider had a policy and procedures for people using the service and others about how to make a complaint.
The service had an experienced manager who was committed to delivering person centred care and support to people using the service.
Bluebird Hillingdon provided a range of services to people in their own home including personal care. People using the service had a range of needs and were mainly older people and some were living with dementia. The service offered support to people over the age of 18 years old. At the time of our inspection 46 people were receiving personal care in their own homes. The care had either been funded by their local authority, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) or people were paying for their own care.
There was a registered manager in post. 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.
Not all the records relating to the prompting or administration of medicines were accurate.
The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the care provided. However, these did not always provide appropriate information to identify issues and address the quality of the service.
Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse.
Risk assessments were in place for identified areas of risk to minimise them.
There was a record of the equipment in people’s homes which included who was responsible to maintain and service the equipment in order to protect care workers and people using the service.
Staff recruitment procedures were in place and being followed. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs.
Staff and care workers said they worked well as a team and received training to provide them with the skills and knowledge to care for people effectively.
The Mental Capacity Act (2005) had been appropriately applied and considered. People were involved in how they wanted to be supported and had consented to the support they received.
Care workers respected people’s wishes, gave them choices and supported them to be as independent as possible.
The provider was active in seeking feedback from people with regard to their experiences of the service and used this to drive improvement.
People’s care plans covered their needs and detailed the support their care workers provided on each visit.
People’s healthcare and nutritional needs were monitored and they were referred to the GP and other healthcare professionals if needed.
People and relatives were confident to raise any complaints and systems were in place to record and investigate these.
We found breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 which related to medicines management and quality assurance systems.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.