Archived: Bluebird Care East Hertfordshire

Updated 22 July 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We met with the provider on 13 February 2015 to discuss concerns around late and missed calls that had been raised with us.

This inspection was unannounced and took place on 05 March 2015. We did not provide notice of the inspection because we had received information of concern. The inspection team consisted of one inspector who visited the service to carry out the inspection and then between 06 and 12 March 2015 we telephoned people who used the service to gain their feedback.

Before we visited we reviewed information we held about the home including statutory notifications that had been submitted. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us. We spoke with the monitoring officer for the local authority and contacted the local authority safeguarding team.

During our inspection we spoke with 8 people who used the service and 14 relatives, we also talked to six staff members and the provider. We looked at six care records and three staff files. We reviewed records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 22 July 2015

This inspection took place on the 05 March 2015 and was unannounced. At our previous inspection on 09 December 2013 we found the provider was meeting the minimum requirements.

Bluebird Care East Hertfordshire is a domiciliary care service registered to provide care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection over 90 people were receiving care or support in their home.

The service did not have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 service had moved address from Unit 7 The Highoak Business Centre, Collett Road, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 7LY to Unit 16, Office A, Mead Business Centre, Mead Lane, Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG13 7BJ. However the provider did not inform the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the changes and did not follow the correct registration procedures. This was a breach of the conditions of their registration. The provider has now subsequently made the appropriate applications.

People experienced late and missed care calls.

Staff rotas did not allow for travel time between calls to enable staff to arrive on time or stay for the allotted period of time.

The provider did not follow safe recruitment practises when new staff were recruited.

Staff were aware of their responsibility to protect people from harm or abuse, however when concerns were identified these were not always investigated and reported.

Medicines were not always administered safely.

Staff gained consent from people prior to providing care or services, however where people lacked capacity we saw that arrangements were not in place for staff to act in their best interests. Staff were not knowledgeable about the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005). Staff also understood the importance of giving people as much choice and freedom as possible.

Staff received training however some of this had elapsed. Staff told us they felt supported by the provider and received support from their line managers..

Staff told us about the importance of providing people with choice and independence.

People’s privacy and dignity were respected and all confidential information was held securely.

The provider had a complaints policy however not all complaints had been documented or investigated.

The provider did not have effective quality assurance monitoring in place to monitor trends to recognise areas that required improvement.

People told us the service lacked leadership and was not well led.

Following this inspection the provider voluntarily undertook an agreement to only provide care to existing people, and to not assess any new referrals.

At this inspection, we found the service to be in breach of the Health and Social care Act 2008 (Regulated activities) Regulations 2014, and also the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.