Bluebird Care North Tyneside

Updated 5 October 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team included an inspector and an Expert by Experience.

An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced. Inspection activity started on 21 March 2023 and ended on 27 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on 21 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We requested feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch and reviewed information we already held about the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 8 members of staff. This included the registered manager, the operations director, the nominated individual, 3 care assistants, and 2 supervisors. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We also tried to speak with 16 people who use the service and their relatives to gain feedback. We spoke to 4 people who use the service and 2 of their relatives.

During our visit we looked at care records, training records, staff recruitment records and the policies and procedures used by the provider.

Updated 5 October 2023

About the service

Bluebird Care North Tyneside is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their homes. 70 people were receiving personal care at the time of the inspection.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support: People were encouraged to live as independent lives as possible. The provider showed examples of positive risk taking which supported people in this way.

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.

Right Care: Care plans reflected peoples wishes and preferences and staff were trained to support people to take their medicine safely. Concerns from observations were shared with healthcare professionals for further advice.

Right Culture: Staff were knowledgeable about the vision and values of the service and the provider had taken a range of steps to encourage openness and transparency as well as by instilling a positive working environment in which staff could approach managers with concerns.

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 (report published 21 October 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the time that had passed since our last inspection.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bluebird Care North Tyneside 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.