Bluebird Care Sunderland Wins Prestigious National Franchisee Award

Bluebird Care has recognised its very own Sunderland franchise for strong quality and compliance, by awarding it the ‘Small Business of the Year’ award at their recent 2021 Awards Conference.

The award is open to franchise businesses that are achieving sustainable growth, whilst also demonstrating compliance and high-quality levels, over a sustained period of 12 months.

Bluebird Care Sunderland are a leading home care provider who deliver care services directly to their customers, in their own homes. Care visits cover a variety of highly individualised services, from personal care to companionship, home help, to trips into the community, right up to 24-hour Live-in Care. Furthermore, they are registered by the Care Quality Commission to help, aid and support children.

Since the offset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Bluebird Care Sunderland has more than doubled in size, and in doing so has achieved stability and growth in times of unprecedented levels of difficulty for the care sector. 

To do so, they changed their way of working in a controlled way, to meet the increasingly growing and changing demands of their customers. Their actions meant from March 2020 when the UK Government implemented restrictions, until June 2021, when the strictest of those restrictions were lifted, not a single member of staff or customer at Bluebird Care Sunderland contracted COVID-19.

It took stability, confidence and assertiveness across the whole Sunderland office. For example, when mask wearing became mandatory and personal protective equipment (PPE) was in short supply at the pandemic’s height in Summer 2020, the franchise sourced masks directly from China at a third of the inflated market cost, and well ahead of the curve. Their decisiveness in minimising risk meant as a home care provider they have not once ran out of PPE during the pandemic.

Bluebird Care Sunderland currently have 60 members of staff responsible for care visits to over 110 customers across the region. Three members of the team are currently training towards a Level 5 Management Qualification, to become fully pledged care managers. 

Whilst the franchise are home care providers first and foremost, Director Thomas Chacko, originally an engineer, has installed a culture of being solution providers, too. 

He commented:

“Over the past 12 months, we have been committed to being solutions providers for our customers. We have been able to stabilise and grow during difficult times by staying consistent, confident and committed to each other and our customers. 

“In spite of the challenges, it has been business as usual. Once the risk that the pandemic poses is minimised with strategic planning and communication, any business will thrive that has excellent staff empowered with trust, confidence and knowledge. That is why Bluebird Care Sunderland has achieved sustainable growth and will continue to do so.”