Updated 3 April 2019
The inspection: We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team: One inspector carried out this inspection.
Service and service type: The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to adults of all ages.
Not everyone using Bluebird Care Harrogate receives a regulated activity. Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people receiving ‘personal care’; help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the CQC. This means 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: We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 7 February and ended on 13 February 2019. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did: Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service. This included notifications about incidents the provider must tell us about, such as deaths of people using the service. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is information we require providers to send to us to give us key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We contacted Healthwatch and the local authority commissioning and safeguarding teams. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we looked at a range of documents including the provider’s policies and procedures, compliments the service had received and quality assurance reports. We looked at the care files of five people who used the service and three people’s medication records. We looked at the recruitment files of three staff and two staff personal files. We visited two people who used the service and one of their relatives in their own homes.
We spoke with the registered manager, administrator and seven staff. Following the inspection, we spoke with two people and two relatives by telephone. We received feedback from two professionals that work with the service; an advocate and a care provider. An advocate is someone who supports people to make sure their wishes and views are heard.