Archived: Mencap - Darlington

People told us they felt involved and included in their care planning. There were suitable arrangements in place for obtaining the consent to care from people who used the service.

People told us they knew which staff would be supporting them and at what times. People's comments included, 'it's a good service', 'all the staff are very nice' and 'I choose what I want to do and staff help me do it'.

We saw staff were skilled at understanding people's individual needs, and helped them to lead active lifestyles. People felt there was enough staff to support people in the right way at the times they needed it.

The provider had effective systems for monitoring the quality and safety of the service. People were protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate support because records were kept up to date and were confidentially stored.

We saw that care plans had a person centred format, and they showed how people's views and preferences about their care had been recorded.

We found policies and procedures were available in the office and key policies were located in people's homes. Staff working in people's homes told us where they could locate them. We looked at staff recruitment and found that the organisation had a policy and procedure in place for making sure there were checks carried out on people applying to work at the service and people were involved in the recruitment of staff. Staff told us they felt supported by their managers and said 'We have good communication between the team and management'.