Glowing report for drug service
HALTON’S youth drug service has been given a glowing review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The regulator said that although it does not give ratings for individual treatment initiatives, its inspection report for Halton Young Addiction (HYA) was full of references to ‘good practice’.
It said that HYA, based at CRMZ in Widnes, provided its service ‘safely and effectively’ in age appropriate settings and with ‘good’ accommodation.
Confidentiality arrangements were clearly recorded and interventions to treat misuse were ‘evidence-based and followed national treatment agency recommendations’.
The report said that HYA focused ‘significant resources’ on engaging with young people, even where many had not misused substances, but that its ethos was to provide support and activities to boost self-esteem and build resilience to issues such as bullying and anti-social behaviour, while targeting those deemed most vulnerable to future misuse.
Staff were ‘ highly skilled’ and morale was ‘excellent’, the CQC said.
The report revealed that the service was taking part in a pilot scheme with the police, schools and the local authority missing from home team to support and intervene in cases where young people were at high risk of sexual exploitation.
‘Outstanding’ areas of practice included running a Duke Of Edinburgh scheme, joint initiatives to reduce anti-social behaviour such as the VRMZ bus, and courses and achievement ceremonies.
As part of the inspection, the CQC reviewed substance misuse interventions, most of which related to cannabis and cocaine, adding that although a ‘significant’ number of young people were receiving alcohol awareness and support to be abstinent or manage alcohol intake, there was little demand for detoxification support.
The report said the service employed 21 staff, and had 13 volunteers.
No staff had left post in the previous 12 months and there were no vacancies.
Sickness rate was average at 3.5%.
The service worked seven days a week and during evenings and school holidays.