Bluebird Care (Solihull & Birmingham West)

Updated 26 April 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type:

Bluebird Care (Solihull) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses in the community.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

• Our inspection was announced.

The provider was given 48 hours' notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

Our inspection process commenced on 12 March 2019 and concluded on 15 March 2019. It included visiting the service's office and telephoning people who used the service and their relatives. We visited the office location on 12 March 2019 to see the registered manager, provider's representative and office staff, and to review care records and policies and procedures. We telephoned four people who used the service and four relatives during the inspection on 15 March 2019.

What we did:

Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public and the local authority. We checked records held by Companies House.

Our plan took into account information the provider sent us since the last inspection. We also considered information about matters the provider must notify us about, such as events involving injury. We obtained information from the local authority commissioners and safeguarding team and other professionals who work with the service. We also looked at the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

We spoke with four people who used the service and four relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, a provider's representative, two senior staff who were based in the office and two care workers.

We reviewed six people's care records, five staff recruitment and personnel files, staff training documents and other records about the management of the service.

Updated 26 April 2019

About the service:

Bluebird Care (Solihull) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses in the community. Not everyone using the service receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection, it was providing a service to 55 people.

People's experience of using this service:

• Although staff recruitment was safe, there were issues with availability of evidence of pre-recruitment checks. This was resolved during the inspection.

• Consideration into a person's mental capacity had not been dealt with appropriately. This meant that the service was involved in unauthorised restrictions. We have made a recommendation about this that can be seen in the 'Effective' section of this report.

• The provider had arrangements to check and audit systems.

• People were protected against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The care they received was safe.

• People's likes, preferences and dislikes were assessed and care packages met people's desired expectations.

• People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

• People's care was person-centred. Care was designed to ensure people's independence was encouraged and maintained.

• People and their relatives were involved in the care planning and review of their care.

• The service had a stable management structure. The registered manager and provider had implemented systems to ensure they continuously measured the safety of people's care and quality of the service.

• People had an active say in how the service was operated and managed through individual meetings, surveys and reviews.

• More information is contained in the full report.

Rating at last inspection: Good (08 July 2016).

Why we inspected: This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, high quality care and re-inspect based on the overall rating. We may inspect sooner if we receive information of concern.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk