Bluebird Care Colchester & Tendring

Updated 13 April 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team: One inspector and an assistant inspector conducted the inspection.

Service and service type

Bluebird Care Colchester & Tendring is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing. It provides a service to older adults. The service also provides 24-hour care within people's homes. Bluebird Care Colchester & Tendring serves the people within and around Tendring and Colchester. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 103 people and employed 73 members of staff.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure staff would be available to meet with us.

Inspection site visit activity started on 22 February 2019 and ended on 28 February 2019. It included telephone calls to people using the service. We visited the office location on 22 February 2019 and 28 February 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must let us know about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and other professionals involved with the service. We assessed the information that providers send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection visit, we spoke with five people using the service, seven relatives and nine staff including the registered manager, provider, care support worker and care staff. We looked at records in relation to people who used the service including four care plans and three medication records. We looked at records relating to recruitment, training and systems for monitoring quality.

After the inspection, the registered manager provided us with further evidence of good practice.

Updated 13 April 2019

About the service: Bluebird Care Colchester & Tendring is a domiciliary care agency. It provided personal care to 103 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ Staff had a good knowledge of how to keep people safe from avoidable harm and raise safeguards where required.

¿ People were supported to take their medicines in a safe way and staff knew when to administer ‘as and when required’ medicines to people.

¿ Staff were recruited safely and appropriate checks were carried out before they started work at the service. Staff were matched to people where possible and people were involved in the choosing of staff in certain instances.

¿ Where errors occurred, lessons were learned, and action was taken to prevent re-occurrence.

¿ The registered manager ensured that staff received basic and specialist training based on people’s individual needs.

¿Staff continued to have a good understanding of key pieces of legislation and when they should be applied.

¿ Quality assurance processes were in place to ensure the safety of the service and these supported the safe running of the service.

¿ People received care and support based on their individual assessment, needs and preferences.

¿ People were supported by staff who understood the need to ensure person centred care and to respect and listen to people.

¿ People told us they felt well cared for by staff who treated them with respect and dignity and encouraged them to maintain relationships and keep their independence for as long as possible.

¿ Systems were in place for people to raise complaints and concerns. Where complaints were raised, action was taken and fed back to people.

¿ There was a strong emphasis on continually striving to improve. Managers recognised, promoted and regularly implemented innovative systems in order to provide a high-quality service.

¿ People and staff spoke extremely positively about working for the provider. They felt well supported by them and could talk to management at any time, feeling confident any concerns would be acted on promptly.

¿ The service worked in partnership with other organisations to make sure they were following current practice and providing a high-quality service.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published on 24 August 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The service remained good overall.

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 information of concern, we may inspect sooner.