Bluewood Healthcare

Updated 6 January 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 3 inspectors and 2 Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 11 December 2023 and ended on 14 December 2023. We visited the location’s office on 11 December 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people who used the service and 21 family members about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager, the quality manager and a care co-ordinator when we visited the office. We spoke with 8 health care assistants and 1 care co-ordinator by telephone.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 8 people's care records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality monitoring, minutes of meetings, policies and procedures, audit outcomes and the staff training matrix.

Updated 6 January 2024

About the service

Bluewood Healthcare is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of inspection, 152 people were receiving personal care. 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

People and family members were highly complementary of the support and care they received and told us they would recommend the service to others. A family member told us, “I have nothing but praise for all the carers do, I can’t find fault with anything. I have the utmost confidence with everyone, from the manager to all the carers, brilliant service.”

Systems and processes were in place to support people's safety. People's needs, including their safety were assessed and monitored. People were supported by staff who had been recruited consistent with the provider’s policy. There were sufficient staff to meet people's needs. People and family members spoke of the reliability of the service, and the consistency of staff who provided their care. People received the support they required with their medicines. Staff worked consistently within the providers policy and procedure for infection prevention and control.

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. People and family members spoke of the kind and caring approach of staff and of their involvement in decisions about their care. People and their family members were involved in the development and reviewing of their care and support package.

People received good quality care outcomes, supported by the commitment of all staff to deliver person centred care, giving consideration to equality characteristics, and the individual needs and preferences of people.

The provider's systems and processes monitored the quality of the service. People's views and that of family members and staff were sought through surveys, which were analysed and used to identify where improvements were needed. A range of audits were undertaken to monitor the quality of care provided. Staff were supported through ongoing monitoring and effective communication, which included regular staff meetings to support the delivery of good quality care.

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 requires improvement (published 29 September 2022).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bluewood Healthcare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.