Bluebird Care Leeds North

Not everyone using Bluebird Care (Leeds North) receives regulated activity; The Care Quality Commission (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.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

Everyone we spoke with told us the service was safe. Medicines were managed and monitored safely, and staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults. Staff were able to describe how they would identify and report signs of abuse.

Risks to people's safety were managed, however risk assessment processes did not always contain person- centred information.

People told us staff were well trained and competent to meet their needs. New staff received a comprehensive induction, and staff received appropriate support and encouragement from senior staff.

People's health and wellbeing was monitored and recorded effectively. Any changes to peoples' health and wellbeing was recorded and any actions taken by health and social care professionals cascaded to staff where relevant.

Staff were kind, caring and compassionate. staff understood how to protect and promote people's dignity and privacy, as well as support them to live independent lives.

Care plans contained good, person-centred information with lots of detail for staff on how people wanted their needs met. Care plans were reviewed regularly, and people or their relatives had access to their own care records through an app (an application downloaded by a user to a mobile device) where they could communicate any changing need and ensure this was acted upon immediately.

The service had policies and procedures in place for managing complaints. There were no formal complaints in 2018, however the service made the effort to record and thoroughly investigate verbal 'minor' complaints to ensure people's concerns were resolved before they escalated into formal complaints or

dissatisfaction.

There was a positive open culture at the service. Staff we spoke with were confident in the leadership of the service. The service gathered feedback from staff and people who used the service in order to monitor and improve the quality of the service.

There was a comprehensive system of quality assurance in place to monitor, analyse and improve the quality of the service delivered. There were regular audits and meetings held to discuss their outcomes.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found