Locations and fees
Two questions, and neither answer has a number in it yet.
Where do you work, and what does it cost. They are the first two things anyone asks, and this is the page that promises them — so it had better say plainly what we know and what we do not, rather than fill the gap with something shaped like an answer.
Bluebell Care Group has published no rate, no fee range and no area list, because none has been set. A figure invented to fill a page does not stay a placeholder: it gets quoted back to us by someone already receiving a service, and an area drawn as a circle around an office covers streets nobody is staffed to reach.
What we can do instead is explain how each service is normally funded. That is not a substitute for a price. It is better than a bad one — it tells you which questions actually move the number, so you can put them to us and to whoever else you are comparing us with.
No fee here, and no location. What is here is how the money works.
Where we work
TBD — the areas Bluebell covers have not been supplied to this project. The service pages say exactly that, and this page is not going to say something different in a friendlier tone.
So ask us about your own address. You will get a straight answer for it rather than a map that flatters the coverage, and if the answer is no it will be a no, with whoever we would point you to instead.
There is no office address on this site either, and that gap is the more serious of the two: a registered name, a company number, the part of the UK the company is registered in and a registered office are a Companies Act duty. All four are still to be confirmed, and our terms page lists them as gaps rather than quietly leaving the rows out. Terms and conditions.
- The areas we can actually staff, rather than the ones we would like to be asked about.
- Named at the level you would use yourself — where you live, not a region on a procurement map.
- Per service, because home care and a children’s home do not cover the same ground and never have.
How each service is normally funded
Each block below is taken from that service’s own page, so the two cannot drift apart. It is how this kind of support is normally paid for in England — not what Bluebell charges, because Bluebell does not yet charge anything.
Supported living
Here is how supported living is normally paid for, so you can ask us — and anyone you are comparing us with — the right questions.How supported living is normally paid for- Rent is paid to the landlord and is usually met in full or in part by housing benefit.
- The support is funded separately, most often through a local authority care package.
- A Care Act assessment is what decides the support, and it is free. Worth starting either way.
- Anyone who quotes a figure before they know your package is guessing. Including us.
Home care
Here is how home care is normally priced, so you can ask us — and anyone you are comparing us with — the right questions.How home care is normally priced- Charged by the visit. Its length moves the price more than anything else.
- Evenings, weekends and bank holidays cost more. Ask for those rates by name.
- A council assessment may cover some or all of it. Worth starting either way.
- Anyone who quotes a figure before visiting is guessing. Including us.
Children’s services
Here is how a children’s placement is normally priced, so a placing authority can ask us — and anyone it is comparing us with — the right questions.How a children’s placement is normally funded- Charged as a weekly fee per child, agreed with the placing local authority.
- Anything additional — education support, therapeutic input, transport — is quoted separately. Ask for it by name.
- Framework and spot-purchase terms differ. TBD — Bluebell has not confirmed which frameworks it is on.
- Anyone who quotes a fee before reading the referral is guessing. Including us.
Residential care is still in development, so there is nothing here about how it would be paid for. That page says what has to be true before it becomes a service — a registration, a place and a date.
What to ask any provider, including us
- Ask what the visit length actually is, and what happens when a visit runs over. In home care it moves the price more than anything else on the invoice.
- Ask for the evening, weekend and bank-holiday rates by name. They are almost always higher than the headline rate, and the headline rate is the one you get quoted.
- Ask which parts of the fee are the fee, and which are quoted separately. For a children’s placement that usually means education support, therapeutic input and transport.
- In supported living, ask for rent and support as two figures. One bill for both hides which of the two is going up, and they are funded through completely different routes.
- Ask whether a Care Act assessment has been done. It is free, it is what decides the support, and it is worth starting whatever you conclude about a provider.
- Ask when the figure you have been given was last reviewed, and what would change it. A price with no review date is a price that changes without a conversation.
- Ask anyone who quotes before visiting, or before reading the referral, how they arrived at the number. Including us.
What we will publish, and when
- An area list, once we know which areas we can genuinely staff. Not before, and not as a radius drawn around an office.
- A location, once there is a registered service at one. Residential care already has its own page saying the same thing in its own words.
- A fee basis, per service, once there is a registration to charge under and a service to charge for: what the charge is for, what moves it, and when it gets reviewed.
- Not a “from” figure. A “from” is the cheapest version of a service almost nobody actually receives, and it is the number most likely to be wrong for you.
Ask us about your own address
One question, one address, one straight answer. The routes below are the ones already published on the contact page rather than a new address invented for this one, and each carries its own reply window.
- Ask about care for someone close to you
- One working day
- Council partnership
- Five working days