Based in leafy Suffolk, Christies Care has been delivering exceptional home care services across the UK since 1987. As a family-owned and operated provider, Christies Care has grown from providing only live-in care to now offering comprehensive care services throughout the country - including both live-in and domiciliary care (what the company calls ‘pop-in’ services).

This expansion reflects the team’s commitment to providing complete care journeys for their clients. Their model focuses on everything from initial companionship visits to comprehensive support packages.

Care quality lies at the heart of the business, and is reflected in its ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating.

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As Christies Care expanded it’s teams’ services and geographical reach, the business faced critical challenges in maintaining Outstanding-level care delivery across multiple branches and service types.

Previously using a bespoke in-house rostering system and Careplanner, Christies Care made the decision to implement Birdie way back in 2020. Key among the reasons they choose Birdie was the smart platform’s unique analytics capabilities and their ‘Q-Score’ feature - a Birdie tool that helps businesses clearly understand where they stand with the CQC long before the inspector comes around.

Charlotte Driver-Young, Operations Director, explains: "One of the reasons that appealed to us around Birdie was the use and ease of use. We found it quite intuitive and easy to navigate...Birdie was also fantastic around assisting us with onboarding. We did surveys with carers to be able to just see how they felt about it, and we had amazing feedback from the small pool of carers that we engaged with.”

Birdie’s smart homecare technology gave the team an all-in-one suite to manage the business, from care management capabilities that ensure consistent, person-centred care delivery across all branches, to rostering, auditing and finance tools that support the business in delivering care at a growing scale.

The biggest difference was in Birdie’s ability to deliver smart features that their first generation care technology lacked. Where other technologies simply took processes from paper to screens, these features helped give the team the power of insight and automation. Here’s how that looked in practice…

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Predictive insight with Birdie Analytics and its unique Q-Score

Birdie Analytics gives providers like Christies Care access to actionable insights across their business. It does so by aggregating their care management, rostering and finance information into easy-to-read graphs and actionable data so they can see what needs their focus now, and what to look at next.

A unique feature of the Birdie Analytics suite is the Q-Score. This is a dashboard that uses the care provider’s own data to mark their performance in line with the CQC's scoring system. The Q-Score report generates a monthly rating out of 4 (in line with the CQC’s own ratings of Inadequate through to Outstanding), serving as an indicator of care quality. Birdie's Q-Score has now become an integral part of Christies Care's quality management system. Charlotte describes it as "a tool that actually can reflect the standard of care that you're providing to your clients and also to your carers. It's another layer of reassurance." The Q-Score provides clear metrics that can be presented to internal staff, external stakeholders, local authorities, and regulators - making it an invaluable tool for demonstrating care quality.

Katie Parker, Registered Manager, adds that the Q-Score "makes it really simplified to pull data and understand it. It ensures we do a person-centred approach to all of our clients and that we're covering the needs they actually require within their visits."

Emily, Head of Care at Christies Care, emphasises the transformation in their oversight capabilities: "With Birdie, there's so much information available to us from the analytical point of view. If you're dealing with client-specific issues, you can log on and get that information - the care notes are all available at your fingertips." This enhanced visibility has revolutionised their ability to monitor and maintain care quality across all branches.

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Real-time quality monitoring through feedback and alerts

The Birdie platform provides real-time visibility across all branches, surfacing feedback from carers and clients through alerts. "Feedback is really important to us, and with Birdie we can record feedback within Birdie. We can look at that and see it in real-time," explains Charlotte.

This immediate access to feedback, combined with comprehensive data analytics, allows the team to target specific areas of concern and maintain high service levels across all aspects of care delivery, including critical areas like medication management.

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Demonstrated Quality Improvements through the Q-Score

Since partnering with Birdie, Christies Care has seen remarkable improvements in their care quality. One of the significant achievements is that Christies Care’s Q-Score went from 2.8 to 3.4 out of 4 through focused improvements in care planning and visit management. The Q-Score has become a key performance indicator for departments across the organisation, allowing managers to visually show teams their achievements and identify areas for improvement.

Christies Care's use of the Q-Score has also particularly impressed local authorities. Katie describes a recent collaboration with Suffolk County Council regarding visits being used to their full extent: "Birdie analytics and Q-Score helped us pull reports to see all visits that were not being stayed at for 75% of the time. We could then drill down to individual clients and see if it was specific carers or if it was all carers that were not staying. This allowed us to either address it with specific carers or adjust visit durations where appropriate."

This level of insight has helped build trust with the council, who value Christie Care’s commitment to transparent oversight and efficient use of funding. Using a thoughtful, evidence-based approach has strengthened Christies Care's relationships with local authorities and reinforced their reputation for excellence.

Supporting Growth

Christies Care's expansion has also been significantly supported by Birdie's platform. Charlotte Driver-Young describes a recent success: "When we acquired another business, we instantly brought 60-plus clients onto Birdie's platform very quickly, which means we can then actually start to operationally focus on our growth around delivering high-quality care." The platform’s seamless transition of new branches meant they could focus on what matters most – providing exceptional care to their clients.

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As Christies Care continues to grow, they're excited about upcoming developments that will help them provide even better care. The new GP Connect integration will enhance how they coordinate with healthcare providers, while improvements to their scheduling system will help them support more clients and carers.

"We want to grow within the care sector," says Charlotte Driver-Young. "As a provider that is rated outstanding, being able to work with other providers, to benchmark, to look at outcomes that care providers can achieve - that's really important to us."

Through their partnership with Birdie, Christies Care shows how a smart technology partner can help care providers maintain excellence while growing their services to support more people in their communities.

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