- Homecare service
Bluebird Care (Rother & Hastings)
Report from 21 January 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
This assessment took place on 28 January 2025 following an assessment at another of the provider’s services. Bluebird Care (Rother & Hastings) is a care at home agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. CQC only inspects where people are receiving the regulated activity personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection 40 people were receiving support with personal care. The service had a registered manager in place. People and relatives fed back positively regarding the registered manager and office staff, telling us the service was well managed with good levels of communication. Staff looked after people with care and compassion. We received many positive comments about care staff and people were very happy with the care they received, and the support care staff provided them. Telling us, “I really do not know what we would do without them” and “I am housebound, so I look forward to them visiting.” Staff were safely recruited and received an induction and training. All staff completed mandatory and further training to ensure they were able to meet people’s needs. Staff competencies and spot checks were caried out to monitor staff and ensure they were following best practice. Staff felt supported and told us they enjoyed their role. One told us, “I am proud to work for this company.” Governance systems and process were in place to continually review and improve. The registered manager had oversight of the day to day running of the service.
People's experience of this service
Not everyone was able to tell us about their care, we also spoke to people’s relatives and next of kin for feedback. Everyone we spoke to was positive about the care they received, telling us, “I feel so lucky to be able to stay in my own home with support from Bluebird” and “The carers treat my husband like a member of their own family.” People felt safe and told us they liked their carers and felt involved in how their care was provided. “I have been involved in planning my care. I can’t say how frequently I get reviewed, but I just ask, and they come round.” Relatives said that the care provided had improved people’s lives and enabled them to remain at home. One said, “They are good people who know what they are doing.” Some people had complex care needs, relatives felt staff understood people and were able to provide care safely and appropriately telling us “The staff that we have are skilled and appropriate for [partner’s name] complex needs.” Health professionals spoke positively about the care provided by Bluebird staff and the professional approach by management and office staff. One said, “Communication can be busy, but has been great. We have a good relationship with the manager and staff, they help with relevant information about people, they know people and recognise changes to their health and refer them to us when appropriate.”