Archived: The Apricot Centre

Updated 1 November 2017

The Apricot Centre Wellbeing Service for Children and Families offers assessments and specialist interventions for children, young people and families with complex needs.

The Apricot Centre employ experienced CAMHS practitioners, who have a variety of specialist qualifications and collaborate to deliver various forms of therapy. Treatments include; psychiatry, clinical psychology, process oriented psychology (a therapy used by clinicians to help people recover from post-traumatic stress disorder), child & adolescent psychotherapy, art psychotherapy, mental health nursing, social work and counselling.

The provider received referrals from local authorities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and for children placed in East Anglia by other local autorities. The provider was also able to receive private referrals from families.

The service supports 40 young people and families.

The registered manager was Mark O’Connell.

Updated 1 November 2017

• Some areas of the centre were not clean or well maintained. Some areas were visibly dirty.
• The provider did not complete risk assessments for children. Staff would rely on risk history information sent to them by the referrer.
• The provider was not complying with all fire safety regulations. The fire exit was blocked and fire exit signs were not clearly visible. The provider did not have an evacuation plan.
• The provider did not use care plans. Staff had not clearly documented within the care records to state what treatment and therapies children were engaging in.
• The provider did not complete supervision documentation. This meant they were unable to monitor staff compliance with supervision.
• The provider did not have systems in place for sharing lessons learned from incidents or complaints.
• The provider did not undertake clinical audits. This meant they were not able to monitor the quality of the service.
• The provider was not using key performance indicators for measuring the performance of the service.

However:

• Staff received safeguarding training and knew how to make a safeguarding referral when appropriate. Staff were able to tell us what they would report as a safeguarding incident.
• The provider had incident reporting procedures in place. The provider used an electronic reporting system which all staff had access to.
• Families and carers told us that staff were kind, caring and understood the needs of individual children.
• Families and carers were involved in children’s care and were able to attend sessions if appropriate. The provider offered family and carer support.
• The provider had a flexible approach to appointments. Staff would see children in their own home or suitable alternative venues.
• Staff morale was high. Staff felt there was good team working and they received support from staff and managers.

Updated 1 November 2017