Archived: Bluebird Care Birmingham North

Bluebird Care Birmingham North is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to five people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. Some people were living with dementia. The service delivers personal care to people in their own homes.

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

The service had experienced a period of change since the last inspection with a significant number of staff and people choosing to leave the service. A new management team was now in place, including a new registered manager, and good progress was being made to address the concerns we highlighted at the last inspection.

Further improvements need to be made to ensure the service recruits and retains a more consistent staff team so that people can develop relationships with staff that know them well. Improvements are also required to ensure complaints are handled consistently and outcomes clearly communicated to all those involved.

New carers had been recruited to the team and had received a good induction and training programme. The provider was now following safe recruitment procedures and people were now receiving the right medication on a consistent basis.

Staff monitored people’s health needs closely and worked well with healthcare professionals to ensure people received the right support.

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.

Staff treated people with care and respect and understood how to promote people’s dignity and independence. People and their relatives felt that calls were no longer rushed and appreciated the way new staff were completing additional tasks which made people feel well cared for.

Care and support plans had been reviewed and were now a more accurate reflection of people’s wishes and preferences. This enabled staff to deliver more individualised care to people.

Improvements had been introduced to the systems for monitoring and checking the quality of the service. This meant that some concerns were being picked up more promptly and action taken. However, more time was needed to ensure these systems were fully embedded and improvements could be sustained. The provider had accepted responsibility for the findings of the last inspection and focussed on implementing a comprehensive plan to improve the service.

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

Rating at last inspection (and update)

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 23 March 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection, we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

This service has been in Special Measures since 23 March 2019. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. The inspection was also prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing levels and how the service was managed. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

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.

People told us they felt safe using the service but we found that calls to people had been missed. This meant people had on these occasions missed meals and their medication. People did not receive their medication at the right time on a consistent basis. People were not protected from harm because risk assessments had not been completed and not all staff had gone through thorough recruitment procedures to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

Records of incidents and accidents were not kept so no action was taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence and audits and checks were ineffective in highlighting where practice needed to be

improved to reduce the risks to people. Staff had not received sufficient training or supervision to ensure they could deliver safe and effective care.

Several experienced staff who knew people well had recently left the service and people and their relatives were concerned about how the service was being led and managed. Staff did not feel they were listened when they raised concerns or complaints and did not feel valued. People and their relatives were not routinely involved in developing the service and there were no quality plans in place to drive quality improvement.

It was unclear whether people had agreed or consented to receive treatment or had contributed to the development of their care plans. People were supported to access health care services when they needed to and people and their relatives told us that staff were good at monitoring their health needs.

Staff treated people with kindness and respect, but sometimes felt staff were rushing to finish their care as quickly as possible. People and their relatives knew how to complain but did not feel confident that their concerns would be listened to or acted on.

The franchise owner had undertaken a recent quality audit which had identified similar areas of concern that were found at this inspection. Work had started in a few areas on addressing these concerns but improvements were not yet established or having an impact on the quality of the service.

About the service:

Bluebird Care Birmingham North is a domiciliary care service which is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, 17 people were receiving care and support services.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first time we had inspected this service.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection, which took place on 08 January 2018.

Follow up:

As we have rated the service as inadequate, the service will be placed in ‘special measures’. Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not already taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider’s registration of the service, it will be inspected again within six months.

The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe. If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe, so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will act in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.