• Community
  • Community substance misuse service

Archived: Via - Harrow

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

44 Bessborough Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3DJ 0300 303 2868

Provided and run by:
Via Community Ltd

All Inspections

2 November 2022

During a routine inspection

WDP Harrow is a community-based drug alcohol service. This is the second time that the service has been inspected by the Care Quality Commission. We first inspected this service in May 2018 but did not rate them at the time.

We rated this service as good because:

  • The service provided safe care. The number of clients on the caseload of the team was not too high to prevent staff from giving each client the time they needed. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of the risks associated with substance misuse and individual client risks. Staff responded promptly to any sudden deterioration in a client's health. Staff assessed clients physical and mental health prior to commencing any detoxification treatment.
  • Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable for clients needing treatment for substance misuse and in line with national guidance about best practice.
  • The team had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients receiving treatment for drug and alcohol misuse. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and relevant services outside the organisation. Staff effectively supported clients to access a local hepatitis C clinic to ensure early detection and treatment of the virus. The service had a partnership with the local hepatology team, whereby clinicians offered liver function testing and then screened clients for referral into the hepatology pathway.
  • Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of clients. They actively involved clients in decisions and care planning. Clients fed back positively about the staff and the service they received. The service had strengthened the Capital Card Scheme, which provided rewards to help motivate clients to attend health and wellbeing appointments.
  • The service was easy to access. Staff planned and managed discharge well and had alternative pathways for people whose needs it could not meet. Staff responded to high risk clients by effectively transferring them to inpatient detoxification services.
  • The service aimed to support people in harder to reach communities through participating in community events and online conferences. The service recognised some clients were vulnerable and isolated when the service was closed. Therefore, it had subcontracted with another local organisation to provide safe weekend activities.
  • The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that its services ran smoothly. Staff felt respected, supported and valued by colleagues and managers. The governance structure, information from audits and senior management meetings, and the quality of the service improvement projects demonstrated that leaders understood the needs of the client group and delivered services to meet them.

However:

  • Client’s records were not always kept up-to-date. Staff did not always ensure they uploaded the clients’ medicines record from the GP before they commenced treatment.
  • Whilst governance processes operated effectively at team level, improvements were still needed. Audits had not included whether GP summary letters were uploaded onto the system when they were received in a timely way.

13 March to 14 March 2018

During a routine inspection

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following areas of good practice:

  • The service had a robust system in place to oversee the service and to drive improvements. The governance structure, information from audits and senior management meetings, and the quality of the service improvement projects demonstrated that leaders understood the needs of the client group and delivered services to meet them.
  • The service had a safeguarding tracker for children and adults, which they reviewed monthly. This tracker included clients and their children for whom a safeguarding referral had been made by the provider, the referrer or by other agencies. The service had a Hidden Harm practitioner to link the service with children and adult social services.
  • The service provided naloxone training and kits to clients who use opiates and staff members. The delivery, storage and issuing of naloxone medication to clients was monitored and audited by the chief pharmacist during prescriptions and medicines management audits. Two clients had averted potentially fatal episodes because of this scheme.
  • The provider had responded to national concerns about long-term substance misuse and its impact on people of late middle age by conducting an audit of clients within the risk group and then implementing actions to try to improve their quality of life.
  • The service had strong links with the Tamil community and staff supplied information and counselling in the Tamil language. The service was also able to provide counselling in Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi to support the large Asian community in the area.
  • Staff supported LGBT+ clients with a dedicated approach and pathway, which the service created for them. This included referrals to rehabilitation services, which met their needs.
  • Qualified or trained and experienced staff provided a range of therapeutic support in line with best practice guidance. The service was rolling out the Capital Card Scheme, which provided rewards to help motivate clients to attend.
  • The service had a service level agreement with the hepatology services at a local hospital, which allowed clients to access monthly clinics at the hospital for hepatitis C testing and treatment.
  • The service had enough staff to safely care for the clients’ needs. The provider had systems in place to ensure that 97% of staff had undertaken mandatory training and were inducted and trained into other responsibilities such as fire warden or first aider as required.
  • Staff routinely completed risk assessments and risk management plans at the start of clients’ engagement with the service and updated them regularly afterwards.