About the service: Bluebird Care (Mid and West Cornwall) is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. When we inspected they were providing the regulated activity, personal care, to 49 people in the Truro and surrounding areas in Cornwall.

What life is like for people using this service:

• People using this service still benefitted from an outstanding caring and well led service. People consistently told us how they were treated with exceptional kindness, compassion and respect. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on how staff were supportive and went the extra mile to get care just right for people.

• People were truly placed at the centre of the service and were consulted on every level. Respect for privacy and dignity was at the heart of the service's culture and values. It is embedded in everything that the service and its staff do. People and staff feel respected, listened to, and influential.

• People received exceptionally personalised care and support specific to their needs and preferences. People had a core team of staff to support them. Each person was respected as an individual, with their own social and cultural diversity, values and beliefs. People had their human rights upheld.

• People received effective care and treatment from competent, knowledgeable and skilled staff who had the relevant qualifications to meet their needs. The provider had a good system to ensure all staff had regular training to keep them up to date with best practice. Training methods included online, face to face training and competency assessments.

• The service encouraged people to be involved in the service to improve standards of care. For example, people attended bespoke training with staff so that they could all learn together. A person also produced a course on empathy training which was received positively by staff and all staff now attend. People’s views are sought in the recruitment of new staff.

• The whole service continued to have a good track record.

• Staff were, motivated by and proud of the service. There were high levels of satisfaction across all staff.

• The registered manager is passionate about promoting the care industry. The registered manager was involved in the initiative with South West Local Authority and Primary Care Trust on how they could promote the care industry. The registered manager is on the committee and organised the ‘Proud to care’ festival in Cornwall. This involved liaising with many health and social care providers to come together to celebrate and promote the benefits of working in the care industry, plus inviting guest speakers and voluntary groups

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection: Outstanding (report published September 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. At our last inspection we rated the service Outstanding. At this inspection the service remained Outstanding.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

Bluebird Care (Mid and West) Cornwall provides personal care to people who live in their own homes in Truro and surrounding areas of Cornwall. At the time of our inspection the team of 69 care staff was providing support to approximately 50 people in the community.

Bluebird Care UK is a national franchise. A franchise is when a franchisee (the provider) has bought the right to sell a specific company's (the franchisor's) products in a particular area using the company's name. The franchise operates over two hundred locations across the United Kingdom. Bluebird Care (Mid and West Cornwall) is registered to provide personal care to; people who experience dementia, people with learning disabilities or who are on the autistic spectrum disorder, older people and people with a physical disability or sensory impairment.

The service provides three types of support to people in the community. The first is short visits to people in their own homes to provide personal care and domestic support. The second is to provide people with a supported living service. Supported living is where people live in their own home and receive care and support in order to promote their independence. As the housing and care arrangements are separate, people can choose to change their care provider without losing their home. The third type of support is a ‘Live In’ service. This support is also referred to as ‘companionship’ as the person’s care needs are low but they need reassurance and support to remain in their own home. Care staff live with the person in their own home for a particular time period.

The service is required to have a registered manager and at the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were extremely satisfied with the quality of the service they received. People told us “They [the staff] are really lovely. They genuinely care," “They are lovely, they do everything I want” and "They always come in with a smile and make me feel better too.” A relative told us; "They not only look after my husband but they also take care of me too. It means so much,” and “I couldn’t have done it without them, they support me as well as (person’s name).”

People told us they felt safe and were well cared for by Bluebird Care. Their comments included; ““I do feel safe,” and “They (care staff) are so caring and kind, they look after me very well.” People’s relatives echoed this and said; “I am reassured that my husband is receiving care from carers who really do care.”

People and relatives consistently praised staff for their caring attitudes. The registered manager and staff were able to tell us about how they went 'the extra mile' for people and the difference this had made for them. Staff were highly motivated and had gone out of their way to support people and used their own initiative to seek out ways to support people in a caring and kindly manner. Staff were observed to be kind and compassionate both to people and their relatives, who valued the interest staff showed in them as individuals.

People told us they had “never” experienced a missed care visit. One person told us; “It doesn’t matter if it’s snowing, hailing, thunderstorm, raining or sunny, they always come. They have never let me down.” The management team told us; “Missed visits are not an option. People in the community are vulnerable and we must and do visit when we say we will.” The service had robust and effective procedures in place to ensure that all planned care visits were provided. The service’s visit schedules were well organised and there were a sufficient number of staff available to provide people’s care visits in accordance with