We undertook an announced inspection of Bluebird Hillingdon on 11 July 2017. We told the provider two working days before our visit that we would be coming because the location provided a domiciliary care service for people in their own homes and the registered manager and staff might not be available to assist with the inspection if they were out visiting people.

Bluebird (Hillingdon) provides a range of services to people in their own home including personal care. People using the service had a range of needs such as physical disabilities and dementia. The service offered support to people over the age of 18 years old. At the time of our inspection 51 people were receiving personal care in their home. The care had either been funded by their local authority or people were paying for their own care.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

The last inspection took place 16 and 17 May 2016 when we rated the overall service and Safe and Well led Requires Improvement. At this inspection we found improvements had been made to the two areas which we had identified as needing improvement, at our last inspection. These were in relation to medicines management and the quality assurance systems.

The provider had systems to monitor the quality of the service that people received and to make improvements. Audits and checks were carried out to monitor quality in the service and we saw these were up to date.

People received the medicines they needed safely and regular checks on medicine administration records were carried out to ensure care workers recorded each time they administered medicines.

People gave us complimentary comments about the service they received. People felt happy and well looked after.

People's needs were assessed and care was planned to meet these needs. People's needs were regularly reviewed.

People were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts and were assisted by staff to access healthcare services when needed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the systems in the service supported this practice.

There were appropriate procedures to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and the staff were aware of these.

Staff had access to the training and support they needed. Recruitment checks were carried out to make sure staff were suitable to work with people using the service.

The provider had a policy and procedures for people using the service and others about how to make a complaint.

The service had an experienced manager who was committed to delivering person centred care and support to people using the service.

This inspection took place on 16 and 17 May 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider short notice of the inspection because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available to assist with the inspection. This was the first inspection with Care Quality Commission (CQC) since the service moved to a different building which was registered in July 2015.

Bluebird Hillingdon provided a range of services to people in their own home including personal care. People using the service had a range of needs and were mainly older people and some were living with dementia. The service offered support to people over the age of 18 years old. At the time of our inspection 46 people were receiving personal care in their own homes. The care had either been funded by their local authority, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) or people were paying for their own care.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Not all the records relating to the prompting or administration of medicines were accurate.

The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the care provided. However, these did not always provide appropriate information to identify issues and address the quality of the service.

Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse.

Risk assessments were in place for identified areas of risk to minimise them.

There was a record of the equipment in people’s homes which included who was responsible to maintain and service the equipment in order to protect care workers and people using the service.

Staff recruitment procedures were in place and being followed. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs.

Staff and care workers said they worked well as a team and received training to provide them with the skills and knowledge to care for people effectively.

The Mental Capacity Act (2005) had been appropriately applied and considered. People were involved in how they wanted to be supported and had consented to the support they received.

Care workers respected people’s wishes, gave them choices and supported them to be as independent as possible.

The provider was active in seeking feedback from people with regard to their experiences of the service and used this to drive improvement.

People’s care plans covered their needs and detailed the support their care workers provided on each visit.

People’s healthcare and nutritional needs were monitored and they were referred to the GP and other healthcare professionals if needed.

People and relatives were confident to raise any complaints and systems were in place to record and investigate these.

We found breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 which related to medicines management and quality assurance systems.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.