The inspection took place on 19 and 20 March 2018 and was announced. Bluebird Care (New Forest) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service is registered to provide care for people living with dementia, learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, older people, physical disability, sensory impairment and younger adults. At the time of this inspection the service provided care and support to 59 people, seven of which were receiving 24 hour live in care.
The service had a registered manager. 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.
People received effective care from trained staff who had exceptional skills and knowledge to meet people’s individual needs and choices.
People were cared for by exceptional staff who provided kind, compassionate and respectful care. They treated people as individuals and involved people and their families in their planned personalised care.
The leadership and management of the service was outstanding. There was a well organised management team who had clear roles and responsibilities. The registered manager acted as a role model for staff.
The management team promoted strong values and a person centred approach. There was an open culture where ‘lessons learnt’ were encouraged.
The service actively promoted good community links. Staff were regularly involved in fundraising events for local charities and worked alongside and supported other organisations to raise awareness.
There were robust systems to assure quality and identify any potential improvements to the service. This meant people benefited from a constantly improving service that they were at the heart of.
Staff were motivated, passionate and proud of their jobs. They spoke positively about the management team and that they felt involved in the running of the service. Award ceremonies were held to recognise and celebrate good care from staff members.
Staff took account people’s wellbeing and what was important to them. They enhanced people’s quality of life as much as possible.
Staff went the ‘extra mile’ to support people and showed an outstanding kind and caring approach to people.
Staff completed annual development training on a number of subjects that related to the people they were supporting.
Staff were supported through one to one supervision, on site observations, team meetings and dedicated and responsive office staff and management.
People's rights were protected in line with the principles of the MCA. Staff were knowledgeable about the five principles of the act. This ensured people were supported in least restrictive ways and would enable people to have positive experiences.
Recruitment processes were robust to make sure people were cared for by suitable staff. There were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people’s individual needs.
There was an effective complaints system in place. People told us they were confident to raise any issues about their care and that they would be listened to and addressed.
Systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.