BLUEBIRD Care (Alton & Alresford) has been rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection in May.

Inspectors rated the service outstanding for being safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led.

Bluebird Care (Alton & Alresford) is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. There were 72 people receiving care at the time of the inspection.

Deborah Ivanova, deputy chief inspector of adult social care, said: “Bluebird Care (Alton & Alresford) is a service where the staff and management operate with a real sense of team spirit and provide care that people described to us as exceptionally caring.” “Comments about the standard of care were overwhelmingly positive and included ‘If I ask for anything, it is no trouble and they are very kind and willing’. We found numerous examples of the high quality care provided, including one person being helped to regain their independence after staff assisted the person to re-apply for their driving licence after an illness.

“The service was rated Outstanding overall during our previous inspection in January 2016 and I am delighted that the quality of care provided has continued to improve so that the service has not only achieved a second Outstanding overall rating but is also now rated Outstanding in all areas."

Some of the key findings from the inspection include;

• Staff were able to provide a particularly responsive service based on people’s needs but managed to be flexible enough to adapt to changes.

• There was a robust plan in place to ensure when outside events occurred these did not impact upon service delivery. This plan, coupled with the commitment of the care and management team ensured that no calls were missed during the snowy weather in March.