A BOROUGH-wide community care provider is preparing to expand its services into children’s care.
Bluebird Care Reading, Wokingham, Windsor, Maidenhead and Bracknell plans to work directly with local families, schools and community partners to understand where support is most needed.
The move marks a new chapter for the business, which has spent more than 20 years supporting people to live safely and independently at home.
Rather than launch the service behind closed doors, the Bluebird Care team is planning a round-table discussion with parents, carers, schools, local authorities, community organisations and other decision-makers.
The aim is to open up a practical conversation about what families are experiencing, what schools are seeing, and where trained care professionals could help children with additional needs at home, in the community or alongside education.
It comes as more families across England seek support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Latest Department for Education figures show more than 1.8 million pupils in England now have special educational needs, representing one in five pupils.
Bluebird Care’s national team has also highlighted the role care providers can play alongside schools and families, including support during the school day, help with personal care, and support at home so the whole family has additional breathing space.
For Bluebird Care Reading, Wokingham, Windsor, Maidenhead and Bracknell, the expansion is designed to build on its existing care expertise while responding to a different kind of local need.
Rebecca Hawkins, Managing Director of Bluebird Care Reading, Wokingham, Windsor, Maidenhead and Bracknell, said: “We are not starting this by saying, ‘Here is a service, take it or leave it.’
“We want to begin by listening properly.
“Families are often trying to hold together support from lots of different places.
“Schools are doing everything they can, local services are under pressure, and parents can be left wondering what help actually exists for their child.
“If Bluebird Care is going to move into children’s services locally, we want that support to be shaped by the people who understand these challenges first-hand.
“That means parents, carers, schools, local authorities and community organisations all having a voice in the conversation.
“For more than two decades, our work has been rooted in care that is personal, consistent and built around real life at home.
“This next step is about taking those same values and asking how they can help children and families who may need practical, reliable support in their everyday lives.”
The new children’s care service is expected to complement Bluebird Care’s existing services, which include home care, live-in care, dementia care, complex care, companionship care, respite care, palliative and end of life care, hospital discharge support and nursing care at home.
Rebecca added: “This is about more than expanding what we offer.
“It is about understanding where the gaps are, where families feel stuck, and where we can work alongside others to make life feel more manageable.
“If we get this right, we can create support that feels practical, compassionate and genuinely useful to local families.”
Further details about the planned round-table discussion and the development of the children’s care service will be shared in due course.
For more information people should call: 0118 986 3552 or visit: bluebirdcare.co.uk
