Archived: Bluebird Care (Rushmoor & Surrey Heath)

Bluebird Care (Rushmoor & Surrey Heath) is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to people in their own homes. The agency was supporting 37 older people at the time of our inspection, some of whom were living with dementia. Three people were receiving live-in care.

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.

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

Recent changes in the agency’s management team had caused disruption to the service some people received. People told us they were happy with the care they received but some people said visit times had become unpredictable and communication with the office unreliable. Some relatives also highlighted poor communication as a concern. They gave us examples of how this had negatively affected their family members’ care. The recent changes had also affected care staff, some of whom told us they had not been well-supported in their roles. They said issues or concerns they raised were not always resolved.

The registered manager had begun to implement improvements, including communication with people and relatives and the introduction of quality checks. However these initiatives had not brought about sufficient improvement at the time of our inspection to ensure people received a consistent, well-planned service.

People told us they felt safe when staff provided their care. They said they were happy with the care workers who visited them and had established good relationships with them. Relatives told us staff treated their family members with dignity and respect.

Staff were recruited safely and understood their roles in protecting people from abuse. Any risks involved in people’s care were assessed and mitigated. Staff had an induction when they joined the agency and access to relevant training.

People’s medicines were managed safely. Staff monitored people’s health and well-being and reported any changes they observed. The agency had established effective working relationships with other professionals involved in people’s care.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; 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

We carried out a targeted inspection on 19 November 2020 (published 14 January 2021) in response to concerns raised with us. We did not rate the service at the targeted inspection and found no evidence to substantiate the concerns.

This service was registered with us on 17 July 2019 and this is the first inspection at which a rating has been awarded.

This service was previously registered under a different provider at a different address. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was Good, published on 22 April 2017.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence 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 Care (Rushmoor & Surrey Heath) is a domiciliary care service which at the time of the inspection provided personal care to 42 people living in their own homes. The service supported people with a variety of needs including dementia, mental health and physical disability. The service also provided live-in care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, respite care and ad hoc support to people.

The registered manager and the management team cover two locations which are Bluebird Care (Guildford) and Bluebird Care (Rushmoor & Surrey Heath). This report is for Bluebird Care (Rushmoor & Surrey Heath) location and contains the feedback obtained from people being supported by this location. The nominated individual is in the process of registering with the CQC for both locations to operate from the same office. We inspected both locations as the concerns raised crossed-over both locations. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

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

Risks to people had been assessed well by the service based on people’s individual needs. People’s medicines were being managed safely and people were supported to manage their own medicines where possible. We found one medicines related incident had been investigated by the registered manager but not reported to the appropriate authorities. The registered manager actioned this immediately following the inspection.

People told us they felt safe during care visits and gave positive feedback about their care and support. However, there were some occasions when people received late or re-arranged calls and did not always receive the communication from the management team around this. Staff also supported this view and stated it could be frustrating when people had not been told about changes to their call times.

People told us on some occasions they had not always received a response from the office team if they had asked a question. The registered manager had identified this as an area for improvement, and they recruited additional office staff to review and develop the communication process with people where required.

The service was through a restructuring process and this involved a turnover of staff, both carers and management staff in the aim to set up a stable team.

Feedback had been sought from people and relatives prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. A new survey would have been due for completion but had been delayed due to these circumstances. The registered manager developed a new feedback survey to send out in November/December 2020.

People told us they were happy with the staff who attended for home visits or provided live-in care. People said they felt staff were well trained, kind, caring and understanding of their needs.

The registered manager was receptive of feedback and demonstrated a desire to ensure any improvements identified were actioned as part of the ongoing development of the service. Staff gave positive feedback about the registered manager and support and supervision they received.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 16 January 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We undertook a targeted inspection to follow up on concerns which had been raised around staffing, management of medicines and management oversight of the service. This report only covers findings in relation to the Safe and Well-Led domains.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.

CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question

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.