Meet the team

Welcome to Bluebird Care for Lancaster and South Lakeland!  I am delighted to be directing premium care services in my home area.

My Role

My job is to make sure we provide our customers with precisely the care they want, in the way they choose, offering the value-for-money they expect.  That means:

• working with our customers and their families at a personal level to get things right
• recruiting the best staff, with the right values and caring, "can-do" personalities 
• investing in the training, skills and professional development of our staff, as well as offering terms and conditions commensurate with a high quality service.
• developing effective and robust quality systems that guarantee reliability and consistency of service to customers, whatever unforeseen obstacles might get thrown in the way
• always looking for ways we can innovate so as to continually improve on what we offer 

About Me

I started Bluebird Care Lancaster and South Lakeland in 2015, having always had a personal interest in care and caring, and in more recent years hands-on experience supporting close relatives with dementia. 

My professional background is in public policy and administration – my first career was as a diplomat, but I moved to the Lancaster in 2005 to raise our children and worked for Lancashire County Council in promoting transparent and accountable public services.  

I have been hugely inspired by the opportunity to develop my own care business as a member of Bluebird Care network, to bring together my passion for excellent care with my professional skills.

I am married with four children. I love living in the Morecambe Bay area, proud of its rich natural beauty and cultural heritage.   My hobbies include reading and sports - especially walking in the Bowland or Lakeland hills and horseriding.  And as I move past the 50 mark, I find I am loving gardening too!

Uncompromising Dedication to Quality

Bluebird Care was established in 2004 by Paul and Lisa Tarsey who revolutionised how care at home services were provided, striving for the highest quality and valuing the role of the care worker.  They named it after Paul's boyhood hero Sir Donald Campbell and his famous "Bluebird" speed machines, as a tribute to Campbell's uncompromising and awe-inspiring dedication to achievement.  What an honour for me then that, not only am I part of a business network with such esteemable core values, but that the area I cover includes Campbell's very own Lake Coniston and houses full-sized replicas of the "Bluebirds" at Newby Bridge. 

Alyson is our Branch Manager, she is responsible for taking the important decisions regarding the safety and effectiveness of our service.

Before turning to a career in care, Alyson worked as a busy secretary/administrator in a firm of solicitors.  But caring for people is firmly where Alyson's heart lies and in this she goes from strength to strength.  Our customers and staff alike respect and admire Alyson because she knows exactly what she's doing and is always approachable.

"I really enjoyed my time as a carer when I first joined the company, but now I also value the organisation and decision-making involved in making our service great.  I love helping people - customers, families and staff.  I also really enjoy working with other health and care professionals to make sure each person is getting the best possible input." 

Alyson has three delightful young children and loves spending her spare time doing fun things with her family.  She also enjoys reading and supplying the rest of the office team with cake, biscuits and chocolate.........

Jana is our ambassador for the live-in care service and part of the reason we are so good at it is the way we work closely with our customers and their family members.  We get the plan of care just right.  Jana then ensures our carers in situ receive the best support and encouragement to do their very best.

We are extremely proud of the quality of live-in care service.

Jana joined us a carer 2020, having recently arrived in UK from South Africa.  Whilst new to formal care, Jana had spent years caring for her partner following a life-threatening crash.  From the outset she was brilliant at her job because caring for people is just what Jana does. Jana quickly moved through to Senior carer, then Supervisor, and currently working as Live-in Care Manager.  

Jana has two growing boys and enjoys spending as much time with them as she possibly can.

Nicola ensures that you get your care visits at the right times and with the right carers.  Sounds easy but in fact is a complex operation as there are so many risk factors at play in getting coordination of care visits right across the board.  Nicola is the best operson to speak to if you have any concerns or change of preferences in this regard.

Nicola also provides day-to-day management of our domiciliary (or dally care visits) service.  She brings a wealth of experience, having twice been a Registered Care Manager in other services and qualified to Level 5 in Health and Social Care.  Using her supervisors and senior carers, Nicola ensures that the quality of care is premium and that both staff and customers are kept safe at all times.  We are lucky to have her.   

Mum to Michael (human) and Betty (canine), plus grandmother to Raven (also human), Nicola has a lot of love to give.  Betty is quite possibly the world's most beautiful dog and we all love her.  She also goes out to visit our customers whenever a request comes in.  Most often Betty is snuggled up on Nicola's desk, checking she's doing her work right!  

Steph is responsible for recruiting and retaining quality staff.  Only the pick of the crop make it to Bluebird Care.  Steph also ensures everyone is trained to the highest possible standard throughout our company.  She is a real people-person and guaranteed to put a smile on your face if you meet her.  

She brings with her a fantastic range of experience, from dental nursing to practice management and then to care management.  She has even been Operations Director for one of the oldest theatres in the country.

Steph also coordinates and delivers our training programme.  Our staff are given fantastic training before they go out working and receive important refresher training on an ongoing basis thereafter.

Steph does so much more than just recruitment, often coming up with innovative solutions to tricky problems.  It really is hard to imagine how we ever managed without her!

Between them, our trusted team of Supervisors work seven days a week.They are available to respond to all urgent issues when other members of our management team are not at work. 

All of them are highly experienced carers as well as being trained in Supervisor duties.  They can:

- make changes to your care plan as required

- action your requests/communicationsthe quality/complaints etc

- provide effective management of our care assistants and directly monitor the quality of their work

- stand-in for care assistants who become ill or absent at short notice