Background to this inspection
Updated
8 March 2019
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
This inspection took place on 09 January 2019 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that we could speak with staff members.
The inspection team was made up of one inspector and one expert-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.
Prior to our inspection, we reviewed information contained in statutory notifications, the provider information return and feedback received from two nurses and one GP.
We spoke with ten people, four relatives and eight staff members, including three care staff, one senior care worker, a coordinator, the registered manager, area manager and provider.
We reviewed various records including, the training matrix, recruitment files for three employees, policies and procedures, four care plans, records of safeguarding incidents, programme of quality audits, compliments and complaints, questionnaires, analysis of information and rotas. We also undertook a short observation of the induction training that was in progress during our inspection.
Updated
8 March 2019
Bluebird Care (Bath and North East Somerset Ltd) is a domiciliary care service that can provide care for up to 78 people living at home who have a range of needs, including dementia and learning disabilities. We last inspected Bluebird Care (Bath and North East Somerset) in July 2016 and was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service had deteriorated and was rated as ‘requires improvement’, this was because the service was not consistently submitting notifications about alleged abuse.
At the time of our inspection, the service was providing care for 71 people.
The service had not consistently submitted notifications to the commission in line with their statutory responsibilities. Allegations of abuse had not always been submitted, however we saw evidence that the service took appropriate actions to protect people from the risks of harm and abuse.
People received care that was personalised and responsive to their needs. When people were admitted to hospital they received a complimentary visit. The service worked with people to develop new ways of communicating and people were treated with dignity and respect.
Risks to people were assessed, recorded and actions were taken to minimise these. The safety of people was monitored, and this included a monthly check of each person’s medication administration record (MAR). There was an emergency plan in place that informed staff about the people with the highest level of need and the steps that they should take in the event of an emergency.
People and relatives told us that staff members were kind and caring. Staff also said that they felt the management team cared about them and spoke positively about the registered manager and provider.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies in the service supported this practice.
We found one breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 relating to notifications. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of this report.
Further information is in the detailed findings below