Bluebird Care (Newark and Sherwood)

Updated 8 December 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

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

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

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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 1 November 2023 and ended on 6 November 2023. We made telephone calls to people and relatives on 6 November 2023 and visited the office location on 2 November 2023 April 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 2 people who used the service and 11 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We received feedback from 8 members of staff including the registered manager, office manager, care coordinator, team leaders and care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care records including their medicine records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures and training records were reviewed.

Updated 8 December 2023

About the service

Bluebird Care Newark and Sherwood is a service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides long term, short term, and 24-hour care to people within the community. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 46 people.

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

People were protected from the risk of harm and abuse. Staff knew how to keep people safe and how to report their concerns appropriately.

People's needs were assessed before the package of care commenced. Staff received an induction and training for their roles which included shadow shifts of other staff members. People were supported with their eating and drinking needs if this was required.

The care and support people received was safe. People received support from a small team of consistent staff who had the skills and experience required to care for people effectively. People we spoke with used words such as ‘kind’, ‘compassionate’ and ‘caring’ to describe staff.

Medicines were administered safely and referrals to other medical professionals were done timely and recommendations were acted upon.

People told us the service was well led and they received person centred care. Staff and relatives we spoke with supported this and told us management were open and approachable. Management and staff were clear about their roles, responsibilities and continuously looked for ways to develop and improve the service and the level of care provided.

People's capacity to make their own decisions was assessed. 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 12 September 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 Newark and Sherwood 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.