How we are navigating COVID-19 at Bluebird Care

At Bluebird Care, the health and wellbeing of our customers and staff is an absolute priority.

In light of the current COVID-19 virus that has been spreading across the UK, we wanted to take a moment to share how we are mitigating risks wherever possible and doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our customers and team.

At Bluebird Care, the health and wellbeing of our customers and staff is an absolute priority. We have always ensured that there are robust policies in place to help prepare for and prevent the spread of any infection or virus, including coronavirus. In light of recent events we have updated these policies in line with the latest advice from the UK and devolved Governments, the NHS and Public Health bodies in relation to COVID-19.
 
Bearing this in mind, we are taking the correct steps to help mitigate risk for our customers and staff, and that should the virus have a significant impact in any areas where we provide care, we have a robust contingency plan in place. 
 
For example, we have provided our team with a refresher on infection control and we are ensuring that all personal protective equipment is well stocked and that our offices are regularly sanitised.
 
Additionally, we have also reiterated the symptoms of the virus to both customers and our team members, to help minimise the potential for incorrect self-diagnosis and unnecessary concern.
 
We are monitoring all guidance closely and we are continually adapting our guidelines and policies as the situation develops. 
 
At Bluebird Care, we are closely following the government recommendations concerning the virus have already taken steps to keep our staff and our customers safe. To this end, we have taken the following steps to help ensure that any risk is properly mitigated wherever possible:

• Created emergency plans should our staff or customers be impacted.
• Undertaken a new risk assessment of all customers 
• Communicated with all our staff regarding the importance of hand washing 
• Ordered additional provisions of gloves and aprons to protect you and staff
• Provided World Health Organisation accredited training to all Supervisory staff who can share this knowledge with their teams
• As a precaution we have also suspended all large team meetings

The next steps that we aim to take include:

• Provide posters for each of your homes to promote hand washing practices for visitors
• Make sanitising hand gel available to staff free of charge as a further precaution.

We are working closely with NHS and County Council colleagues as well as the Franchisor.  We have received some fantastic advice and resources to play our part in minimising any impact of the virus.

Should our services be affected we plan to prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable. We will address customer needs individually with you. We do expect to experience a disruption to normal services and will seek to minimise the impact of this and ask for your forbearance.