A BRADFORD home care agency needs to improve, a watchdog has warned.

Care Quality Commission inspectors said Bluebird Care (Bradford North), based at Shipley Business Centre in Kirkgate, found a number of issues with care records and medication documentation when they visited the company.

Because Bluebird Care, whose staff visit people to help them to continue to live at home, was changing over from paper to electronic records at the time of the inspection, a number of people did not have up-to-date care records or risk assessments.

The inspectors also found that medicines were not consistently managed in a safe way.

The inspectors' report states: "We found a number of gaps on Medication Administration Records where we could not confirm people had received their medicines as prescribed and care records did not always reflect the medicines people were taking."

The company has previously had more than 100 people on its books in the Bradford area but has since reduced that number.

Inspectors also found records of daily care were not routinely audited as part of a system to check staff were providing appropriate care and support.

However, inspectors noted: "We saw the provider was committed to further improvement of the service.

"Plans were in place to ensure the electronic care recording system provided a system to robustly monitor that staff arrived on time, stayed for the correct amount of time and completed all required tasks. The registered manager told us their plan was to ensure the system was fully implemented by March 2016."

In response to the CQC findings, Bluebird care director John Sutcliffe said: "At Bluebird Care (Bradford North) we take all concerns seriously and we acknowledge the findings of the report and will work closely with CQC to ensure that all regulations are met.

"However, the concerns raised had already been identified and were being addressed as acknowledged in the report that the provider was transitioning from paper based records to computerised record keeping and the provider was committed to further improvements of the service.”

Mr Sutcliffe said the report also highlighted that people felt safe from abuse and that they and their relatives spoke positively about the service and the quality of care provided by the company and its workers saying it was effective and responsive to meet their needs.

"The new monitoring system will be fully implemented by the end of March 2016 which will ensure that we are able to monitor and respond to the needs of customers effectively and be fully compliant with all regulations,” added Mr Sutcliffe.

The Care Quality Commission has now introduced a new online resource to make it easier for people to see which care homes have been rated as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate in their local area.

It comes at a time when the regulator has rated nearly 10,000 care homes across the country, based on an inspection system it rolled out in October 2014.

Nearly two thirds of all active care homes rated so far have been judged by CQC as providing Good standards of care.

To see the online map go to cqc.org.uk/carehomeratingsmap