People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they felt safe using the service but we found that calls to people had been missed. This meant people had on these occasions missed meals and their medication. People did not receive their medication at the right time on a consistent basis. People were not protected from harm because risk assessments had not been completed and not all staff had gone through thorough recruitment procedures to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

Records of incidents and accidents were not kept so no action was taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence and audits and checks were ineffective in highlighting where practice needed to be

improved to reduce the risks to people. Staff had not received sufficient training or supervision to ensure they could deliver safe and effective care.

Several experienced staff who knew people well had recently left the service and people and their relatives were concerned about how the service was being led and managed. Staff did not feel they were listened when they raised concerns or complaints and did not feel valued. People and their relatives were not routinely involved in developing the service and there were no quality plans in place to drive quality improvement.

It was unclear whether people had agreed or consented to receive treatment or had contributed to the development of their care plans. People were supported to access health care services when they needed to and people and their relatives told us that staff were good at monitoring their health needs.

Staff treated people with kindness and respect, but sometimes felt staff were rushing to finish their care as quickly as possible. People and their relatives knew how to complain but did not feel confident that their concerns would be listened to or acted on.

The franchise owner had undertaken a recent quality audit which had identified similar areas of concern that were found at this inspection. Work had started in a few areas on addressing these concerns but improvements were not yet established or having an impact on the quality of the service.

About the service:

Bluebird Care Birmingham North is a domiciliary care service which is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, 17 people were receiving care and support services.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first time we had inspected this service.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection, which took place on 08 January 2018.

Follow up:

As we have rated the service as inadequate, the service will be placed in ‘special measures’. Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not already taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider’s registration of the service, it will be inspected again within six months.

The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe. If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe, so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will act in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.