Frequently asked questions

Contact us by phone 0113 2589677, live chat on our website, or email us at leedsnorth@bluebirdcare.co.uk for an initial discussion about our service. A member of our friendly team will listen to your requirements, answers any question you have and talk you through our prices. You will be offered an appointment for us to visit you at home for a more detailed chat about how Bluebird Care can help you live happily and as independently as possible, in your own home.  

We will provide you with a clear quote about the cost of our services and work with you to create a care plan that set out the care and support you would like in a way that suits you, fitting in with your existing preferred routines.

We will send you an invoice once a fortnight. You can pay by Direct Debit or by electronic bank transfer upon receipt of your invoice. 

Bluebird Care Leeds North is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and we have achieved a "good" in all 5 key areas of inspection, giving us a "Good" overall. The CQC is the independent regulator of healthcare and adult social care services in England. Their social care inspectors make sure that home-care agencies meet government standards of quality and safety. The inspection progress is rigorous and care providers must clearly demonstrate that they are Caring, Safe, Responsive, Effective and Well-Led.

Every member of the Bluebird Care team has been through a rigorous vetting procedure before they start working with us. This involves a robust application and interview process, reference checks, verification of the right to work in the UK and an enhanced DBS check. This details any cautions, warnings, reprimands or convictions on an individual’s criminal history and also checks against the children and adults barred lists.

Some members of our team wear a Bluebird Care uniform and others don't. However, every member of our team has a Bluebird Care personal ID badge, which shows their name, photograph and signature. If you would like to verify the identification of anyone who says they work for Bluebird Care, please call us on 0113 2589677 and we will be able to let you know if they are a legitimate member of our team. 

We monitor the conduct and performance of our team members with regular discussions and supervision, meetings, training sessions, periodic spot checks and competency assessments. 

We seek regular feedback from our customers about the way our team members operate and we encourage you to contact us to give your feedback at any time in between. We are honest and open and we actively listen and act upon any suggestions, compliments, concerns or complaints. It's important to us that you receive outstanding service at all times and if you ever receive anything less, we want to know, so we can act quickly and put it right.  

Our team are fully trained to carry out their role safely and to recognise and respond to signs of abuse and neglect.  They will listen to any concerns that you may have about your safety or the safety of others. We have clear Safeguarding policies and procedures for adults and children which enable us to sensitively respond to and report any suspicions of abuse.  Our team are encouraged to ‘whistle blow’ to protect customers and know that they will be supported in line with our whistle blowing policy. In cases where we have concerns that someone is at risk of abuse, we will ensure that persons wishes stay the heart of any safeguarding enquiry.

If we handle money on your behalf, we have financial procedures and an auditing process in place to ensure that all transactions are recorded and checked by an experienced member of the team on a regular basis.

We are members of the United Kingdom Home Care Association(UKHCA). This is another body that sets the standards of how good care providers should operate.

We also have full Public Liability insurance.

We embrace technology at Bluebird Care and use an electronic care planning system called "PASS" by Everylife Technologies. This system enables our Care Assistants to record the support provided to each customer in an app on their smart phone and the system requires our Care Assistants to tag in and out of our customers' homes.

This smart technology enables our management team to have an oversight in real time, of the care taking place in and allows us to know exactly how much time our Care Assistants have spent at each visit. We monitor call duration as part of our governance checks to ensure that our customers receive value for money and the length of visits they need.

Having this real time information at our fingertips equips us with everything we need to be responsive to changing needs at the time, rather than a week or month later which can tend to happen where care providers use paper care records.  

We will support you to create a Care Plan that works for you, so you have the support you need and also remain independent where you are able to be. Your Care Assistants will work to this plan so you receive support how you like it.  

Our flexible home care services can cover anything from a wellbeing check in visit to 24-hour live-in care and everything in between. Our services can be used for short term help following an illness or because your usual carer is having a break, or as the start of your care journey where it may develop to long-term home care and support.

Our dedicated team of home care assistants are fully trained to:

• Help you start the day; getting up, washed, dressed and having a good breakfast
• Support you with medication; remind and assist you in taking medicines, as well as collect or return medication from your pharmacy or dispensing GP surgery
• Prepare meals with or for you and assist you at mealtimes
• Be companions - we enjoy a good cup of tea and a chat
• Carry out errands - we'll shop with you or help you to make a shopping list, go to the shops for you, plus come back and put it all away, we even like to clean out your fridge for you and organise your food neatly as you like it.
• Help with housekeeping, we help you with or do your household jobs for you such as; making beds, laundry, ironing and cleaning to keep your home clean and tidy.
• Accompany you on social outings; support you with social activities like going out for a walk, attending a day centre, visiting friends or family or going to your place of worship or club
• Support you with your personal care; a little pampering when you need it and visits to support you with bathing, oral health care, clean clothes, fresh bedding and a thoughtfully prepared meal before bedtime
• Care for you at the end of each day, assisting you with getting ready for bed, so you can have a comfortable and restful night's sleep. 

Click here for more details of the care and support services we can provide. 

We will put together a detailed care plan for each customer which, as well as setting out the care to be delivered, also shows the weekly costs.

Some people will be entitled to assistance with the cost of their care either from Adult Social Care at Leeds City Council or NHS funding such as Continuing Healthcare (CHC) or via other government grants

Our office is open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours, we offer 24 hour support and assistance in the event of emergencies, with our out of hours service. This telephone number is available to our customers and people who are important to them for reassurances so we can assist with any urgent issues or last minutes changes required with your care service. 

Our experience tells us that people's care needs very often change. We understand that the care and support you receive needs reviewing from time to time. This is why we carry out reviews with our customers on a regular basis to ensure that you are receiving the right level of support for you. We make the changes you need, when you need them.

If you want to cancel some or all of your care service with us, you'll need to give us 28 days notice and you can still receive care during this time. If you would like to increase the care and support you receive from us, we'll put these changes in place as quickly as possible, we are used to acting quickly to respond to changes in care needs.

This depends on how many care visits you have each week. We very rarely have just one Care Assistant assigned to a particular customer because our Care Assistants need regular time off work, to spend with their own families and friends, so they might not be able to commit to visiting you every time.

We listen to you about your preferences and try to match you with Care Assistants who you will have common interests with. We do keep the number of Care Assistants you will see to a minimum, so you can build relationships with each other.