Bluebird Care (South Gloucestershire)

Updated 26 October 2018

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.

This inspection took place over two days,14 and 15 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the service short notice of our visit to the office on 14 August, because we wanted to make sure the people we needed to speak with were available. The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert by experience. As expert by experience is a person who had used or had a family member who has used this type of service.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed other information we held about the service, including the notifications we had received from the provider. Notifications are changes, events or incidents the provider is legally obliged to notify us of.

During the inspection we spoke with the provider and the registered manager, the six office based staff (care coordinator, field supervisor, live-in care supervisor, the recruitment and development manager, accounts assistant and customer assessment supervisor). We also spoke with three care staff. We looked at the care records for four people and other electronic care records. We also looked at records relating to the running of the service. This included, policies and procedures, records of events that had happened, quality checks that had been completed, supervision, training and recruitment records for five members of staff.

We spoke with eight people who used the service and five relatives of people who used the service. We visited five people in their own homes. People were asked about the care and support they received from Bluebird Care South Gloucestershire and their views have been included in the main body of the report.

Updated 26 October 2018

This inspection was started on Tuesday 14 August and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection to ensure that the provider, registered manager and other office staff were available. On 14 and 15 August 2018 we made telephone calls to people who used the service or their relatives and asked them for their views and experiences of Bluebird Care South Gloucestershire.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is someone who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

At the time of this inspection the service were providing a service to 100 people in their own homes, had 33 care staff and five live-in care staff, six office staff as well as the registered manager and provider. Services were provided to people whose care and support had been arranged on a private basis or was commissioned by South Gloucestershire Council. The geographical area the service covered was within a 10 mile radius of the market town of Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire. The service could be provided from a small number of hours per week up to a 24 hours live-in service.

The service was last inspected in January 2016 and at that time we gave an overall rating of Good. The provider has made significant improvements to the service since the last inspection.

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.

Bluebird Care UK is a national franchise. A franchise is when a franchisee (the provider) has bought the rights to sell a specific company’s products in a particular area using the company’s name. Throughout the report we have referred to Bluebird Care (South Gloucestershire) as Bluebird Care.

Why we have rated this service as Outstanding.

The service was exceptionally caring. To ensure people received continuity of care, they were allocated to the least number of care staff. People had in the past raised concerns when this had not been the case and had been listened to. A new care coordinator had resulted in improved planning and better outcomes for people. Care staff knew the importance of developing good working relationships with the people they looked after and ensured they provided person centred care based on their specific needs. The feedback we received from people and their relatives was overwhelmingly positive.

The service went over and above to provide a person- centred service to each person. One example is their ‘Nobody is lonely at Christmas’ campaign where care staff had arranged for people to have a full Christmas meal with all the trimmings, when family and friends were unable to. Two of the care staff had received awards, one from the Bluebird Care Franchise office, 'Best carer in the South West' and the other ‘Best apprentice’, nominated by their external NVQ trainer.

The service was exceptionally responsive. The assessment, care planning and service delivery arrangements ensured each person was provided with a service that met their specific care and support needs. Their care plans were reviewed on a regular basis and changes made as and when required. Care staff would feedback to the office staff where people’s needs had changed so the service could then respond to these changes and support the person appropriately. People were provided with information about the service so they knew what to expect. These details included the provider’s complaints procedure so they would know how to raise any concerns they may have. The provider used feedback about the service to drive forward any improvements. Feedback from people and their relatives was gathered in care plan reviews and in regular surveys. The views and opinions of people were actively sought and acted upon. It was evident the service was fully focused on meeting people’s individual care and support needs and that they were satisfied at all times.

The service was exceptionally well led. Since the last inspection the office structure had been enhanced and now consisted of the registered manager, a recruitment and development manager, one care coordinator , a field supervisor, a live-in care supervisor and customer assessment supervisor and an accounts assistant. There were plans to recruit an admin/coordinator support. The provider was actively involved in the service, and had a daily presence in the office. The provider maintained a good oversight of how things were going.

Because the provider had exceptional systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service people were provided with a safe, effective, caring and very responsive service that was well led. There was a strong focus by the provider, registered manager, office staff and care staff in ensuring the service was of a high standard.

People received a safe service. The provider, registered manager and staff team were all totally committed to providing a safe service where service delivery was always of a high standard. The systems in place for the management of medicines were exceptional. Records of administration were made electronically and care staff could not log out of a care call until this had been completed. This meant the support people received with their medicines was as prescribed by their GP. Staff completed safeguarding adults training and knew what to do if there were any concerns regarding a person’s health and welfare. Staff also received regular moving and handling training to ensure they always moved people safely. Other risk assessments were completed as part of the care planning process and strategies put in place to reduce or eliminate the risk. The service followed safe recruitment procedures when taking on new staff to ensure people were looked after by care staff who had the right qualities and skills. The provider had an ongoing programme of staff recruitment in order to meet growing demand for their services. There were sufficient numbers of care staff to meet the care and support of people they looked after safely.

The service was effective. People’s care and support needs were assessed prior to a service being set up. The person was very much involved in the assessment and encouraged to have a say in how they wanted to be looked after. The assessments and the resulting care plan was person centred.

The care staff were well trained. New care staff to the team completed induction training and then a number of shadow shifts with an experienced member of staff. They then had a 12 week probationary period to complete during which they worked through the Care Certificate. During this time the new recruit was monitored by the recruitment and development manager and field supervisors. Ongoing mandatory training was arranged for all staff and included any specialist training where people had specific care needs.

People were provided with assistance to eat and drink well where this had been identified as a care need. The care staff were aware of the need for people to have good nutrition and to maintain good hydration, and had actively monitored people in the recent heatwave conditions. The registered manager, office staff and care staff all worked with other health and social care professionals to benefit the people they supported and ensure their health and wellbeing was maintained.

People were supported to be as independent as possible. Their mental capacity was assessed as part of the whole assessment process. People were actively involved in making decisions and encouraged to make their own choices about their care and support and how they wanted to be looked after. The service was meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.