At the time of the inspection, we did not rate substance misuse services.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had systems in place to oversee the service and to drive improvements. Information from audits and surveys demonstrated that the leaders understood the needs of the client group and delivered services to meet them. The service kept to its admission criteria of only accepting low risk clients, which meant that staff were not treating clients whose risk was more than they could safely manage.
• The service was careful to admit only clients who demonstrated good motivation to complete treatment. The service showed that clients maintained abstinence for an average of 288 days after treatment. All clients were still attending 12 step fellowship meetings at the time of the latest survey.
• Staff made good use of recognised rating scales, which were repeated upon discharge from the service to highlight improvement in the clients’ condition.
• Staff were experienced and qualified, and had the right skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the patient group.
• There were no waiting lists and referrers said that the service was responsive to new referrals.
• Interactions between staff and clients were supportive and enabling. Clients said that staff were very professional and they had confidence in the ability of staff to support them in their abstinence.
• Clients’ specific personal background, cultural and religious needs were discussed and incorporated into care plans.
• The service updated the referrers weekly on the progress of their client, and referrers gave positive feedback on the effectiveness of the treatment.
• All staff were trained in adult and children safeguarding. The service kept a safeguarding register which they reviewed during their monthly safeguarding committee meetings.
• The service had systems and processes in place to ensure that the environment was kept clean and safe. The service carried out environmental and fire safety audits, which were overseen by monthly health and safety committee meetings.