Archived: Emerald Care Services Limited

We saw people had a support plan which identified their needs as well as their preferences. A relative confirmed they had been involved in planning the support needed and felt staff respected people's opinions and decisions. We were told before people received support they were asked for their consent.

There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection. This included staff receiving training in this subject and the provision of protective clothing.

Checks had been carried out on staff before they started to work at the agency to make sure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

The provider had an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received. People we spoke with told us they felt they could raise concerns with the office and these would be acted on, however they said they had never had any reason to do so.

We visited the service in August 2012 and found that although staff had received some training other essential training had not been provided. At this visit we found that staff had undertaken additional training so they could meet the needs of the people they supported. We also saw training records had been improved so it was clear what training had taken place for each member of staff.

At our August inspection we found that detailed care plans were not in place and potential risks had not been assessed. At this inspection we saw that people using the service had a detailed care plan which told staff about their assessed needs and provided guidance to staff on how to meet their needs. We also saw staff had checked if there were any risks associated with people's care.