We carried out a review of the data available to us about Bluebird Care Winchester, Eastleigh & Romsey on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Bluebird Care Winchester, Eastleigh & Romsey, you can give feedback on this service.
Bluebird Care (Winchester, Eastleigh & Romsey) is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service is registered to support children, people who may be under or over 65 and who may have a learning disability or be living with dementia, physical disabilities or sensory impairments.
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. At the time of the inspection, the provider was providing personal care to 127 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service had robust systems and processes in place to safeguard people from abuse. Staff were highly trained and passionate, proactively taking responsibility to keep people safe. Risks to people were creatively assessed and safely managed in partnership with them, their relatives and health and social care professionals. There were enough skilled and safely recruited staff available to meet people’s needs in a person-centred way. People’s medicines were managed safely. The provider had robust infection prevention and control measures in place.
The service was exceptionally well-led. People, relatives and staff told us they felt valued by the management team, who were approachable, listened and took prompt, responsive actions when required. The provider maximised the use of electronic systems and processes to monitor people’s experiences of care and the quality of the service. We saw and heard of numerous examples of the provider showing a forward-thinking, innovative and creative approach to continuously reviewing and improving the service. The service worked closely with other organisations and professionals.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
Based on our review of the key questions safe and well-led, the service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support:
• Model of care and setting maximises people’s choice, control and
independence
Right care:
• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human
rights
Right culture:
• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people
using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was outstanding (published 12 January 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to how the service responded to safeguarding incidents and worked with agency live-in care staff. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service remains outstanding. This is based on the findings at this inspection. 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 report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bluebird Care (Winchester, Eastleigh & Romsey) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.
Bluebird Care (Winchester, Eastleigh and Romsey) provide personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, they were providing a service to 112 people with a variety of care needs, including people living with physical frailty or memory loss. Some people were receiving live-in care services from the provider. The service was managed from an office based between Winchester and Eastleigh.
There was a registered manager in place. 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.
We received some outstanding feedback about the provider. Without exception, people, their relatives and healthcare professionals told us they were extremely happy with the care and support provided by Bluebird Care (Winchester, Eastleigh and Romsey).
People were placed at the heart of the service at Bluebird Care (Winchester, Eastleigh and Romsey). The management of the service were dedicated in creating, nurturing and championing a culture within the service that was professional, compassionate and innovate. The registered manager and managing director were prominent role models. They took a leading role in demonstrating the values and standards they expected staff to embody by focussing on continuous improvement leading to positive outcomes for people.
The service had a proven track record of innovation to find creative solutions to meet people’s needs. They had worked in partnership with healthcare providers to design and implement a programme that helped reduce avoidable hospital admissions. This was characteristic of a highly responsive service that was adept at quickly adapting to meet people’s changing needs.
The service used technology to enrich the quality of care it provided. The service had an electronic monitoring system which staff accessed using their work mobile phones. The system also enabled the service to monitor in real time the support people were receiving in relation to personal care, food and drink or medicines. This system was monitored by office staff to ensure that any issues could be addressed quickly and required changes to people’s care plans could quickly be updated, ensuring staff had access to up to date records. The service also used technology to aid communication with people and provide resources to staff which supplemented their skill and knowledge, supporting them in their role.
The service was dedicated in providing a learning and development programme that nurtured staff’s knowledge, skill and professional development. Training was wide ranging and comprehensive and blended together learning from people’s real life experiences of receiving care, interactive or practical sessions and reflections on working practice. The service had a career development programme open to all staff and numerous staff had accessed this programme to take on different roles within the service.
The service had a strong sense of social responsibility and played an active role in the community. The management of the service championed a culture which encouraged staff to participate in local events or initiatives which raised awareness or helped to create resources for people using the service.
Staff were caring, compassionate and creative in overcoming obstacles and findings opportunities to go’ the extra mile’ in order to promote people’s independence and wellbeing. People told us they valued their relationships with staff and they were treated with dignity and respect. The service provided outstanding end of life care. Staff were dedicated, skilled and empathic in their role. The service understood the crucial role of working in partnership with people, families and other professionals in helping people remain comfortable and dignified during their last days.
The service used feedback as an opportunity to learn and improve. People were consulted about how their care was delivered and given opportunities to feed back about how they felt the service was doing. The registered manager used feedback people had given in order to implement positive changes. Where people had concerns or complaints, these were investigated thoroughly to ensure that the service acted upon feedback and made changes where required.
There were quality assurance systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service and to drive improvements.