Bluebird Care (Bristol, Bath & N E Somerset)

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to good.

This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. One person told us, “They treat [person] very well, they are respectful and kind, [person] feels very safe around them. Staff would also thank [person] for being helpful.” Another person told us, “They are not intrusive and are discrete.” Staff described the individual approach they took to ensure they treated people with kindness, compassion and dignity. Leaders felt assured staff were treating people in line with the organisation values. The service provided birthday cards to people who were being supported by the service. We asked professionals for feedback and no concerns were raised about the way the service ensured kindness, compassion and dignity for people.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. One person told us, “Staff take their time to chat to [person] about their life, hobbies and previous work.” A staff member told us, “I must treat people how they want to be treated, as people are not the same.” People’s personal histories and cultural backgrounds were documented in people’s care plan, so staff were able to understand people better.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and well-being. One person told us, “The entire care package is designed to fully support [person] to be as independent and happy as possible in their own home. The staff have been helpful in encouraging [person] to regularly try to walk and keep them mobile, and I can see a difference in [person’s] confidence levels.” Staff demonstrated how they supported people to be independent and how they offered people choice and control. One comment included, “I always encourage people to have a try before they even ask me or even, I ask them. A person has become very independent, for instance, like being able to make their own cups of tea. I encouraged [person] to try and wash up and although they were hesitant at first, they can do it now. I actively encourage them to try to do things. I am here to support, not take over.” People’s care records demonstrated individual information about people and how they should be supported to maximise their independence.

However, one person told us, “I can do some things for myself. I don’t want staff to interfere too much, and I’ve had to say to carers ‘hands off’ because I want to be as independent as I can be. I know what I can do and can’t do, so now I’ll just ask them for help when I need it, and they have accepted that.” Another person told us, “If somebody is doing too much, I will say your job is to enable me to do things, not disable me, so some people intuitively know what I want as they have come for a while, but others need a bit of direction and don't quite get it.”

The provider was exceptional in how they listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. One person told us, “Bluebird responded quickly, professionally and very humanely to our need for [person’s] night care after coming home from hospital.” Another person told us, “They were brilliant when [person] was on end-of-life care, they immediately adjusted the appointments to fit in with our needs and was even able to manage to get authorisation for extra funding for weekends, which they started straight away.” Staff demonstrated an understanding of who to contact when people needed urgent help or support, discomfort, concern or distress. There was evidence of where the provider had adjusted visits to fit in with people’s requirements.

The provider did not always promote the well-being of their staff, and we received mixed feedback from staff. Some staff told us there had been lots of changes in the service in recent months. They told us that the changes had not impacted on them directly and had been managed well. The provider told us 65 staff members had left the service in a 12-month period prior to our inspection. The service had actively recruited 62 new staff members during the 12-month period and recruitment was ongoing. Some staff told us they were sometimes rushed between visits to people due to traffic which resulted in them having less hours of paid work and sometimes they didn’t have a break. The provider told us they monitored staff visit times to incorporate travel between visits. Visit times to people were analysed over a 31-day period during January 2025 and we found that a small percentage of total visits were late. For example, out of 7152 visits, approximately 1% or 96 of these visits were late. The provider told us, “Late visits and attendance reporting are noted on the care plan audits and carers do not always document reasons for late visits, these are monitored by the Deputy Manager and Group Compliance Manager.”

However, staff told us they received regular supervisions and team meetings and the service celebrated staff members who went above and beyond with recognition awards. Some staff told us about reasonable adjustments the service made for them to continue in their work. One staff member told us, “I’ve worked for a lot of care companies, you can’t get better than Bluebird care.” There were opportunities for staff to socialise outside of work. The service had policies in place to support staff well-being and had introduced an employee assistant programme for mental health and guidance.Health questionnaires and lone worker risk assessments were completed with staff to ensure they had support to be effective in their role.