Bluebird Care (Westminster) rated Outstanding by CQC

Published: 20 April 2018 Page last updated: 20 April 2018
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A Westminster based domiciliary care agency has been rated as Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission. The agency provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults.

Bluebird Care (Westminster) was rated Outstanding for being caring, responsive and well-led. It was rated Good for being safe and effective, following the inspection in January 2018.

The service was exceptionally well-led and had been proactive since the last inspection (when it was rated Good overall) with the whole staff team working to improve standards of care at the service. Comments from people included one client who said: "The office is very good when you ring them and are a whole lot better than other agencies I've had". Another said: "Overall it is very good".

Relatives were positive about the caring nature of the staff. One relative said: "We can't fault them. They are so kind and willing to help." Another relative said that they found the staff to always be pleasant, kind and caring when looking after their family member. One health and social care professional felt the care assistants they had worked with had been very compassionate when dealing with sensitive issues and had worked extremely well to understand people and develop a positive relationship.

Bluebird Care had implemented a scheme to manage situations when people were admitted to hospital. This included formalising visits to clients whilst they were in hospital and in one case a care assistant had stayed in hospital with their client. They also arranged for people using the service to have their preferred care assistant when they returned from hospital. The managing director said: "For some people, it will give them the reassurance that they will see the carer they want the most when they come home and this scheme gives us the opportunity to guarantee that for people."

Staff praised the positive culture and felt fully involved in the service, highlighting the opportunities for progression. A mentor programme was in place where senior staff could give advice and guidance.

All of the care assistants CQC spoke with said they felt very well supported in their roles and inspectors received many positive comments about the management of the service and how inclusive it was. Comments included, "The support I get is 10 out of 10. They listen to me and have been very helpful if there have been any problems. Everybody is lovely here".

Bluebird Care worked well with other agencies with the aim to create a dementia friendly community where people who used the service were supported to access events and follow their interests.

Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said:

“Staff and managers at Bluebird Care (Westminster) deserve all the plaudits outlined in this latest inspection report. They have continued to improve and are now an Outstanding service. Very well done to all involved.”

You can read the supplementary report in full on our website.

Ends

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Very well done to all involved

Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector, Adult Social Care

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.