Archived: Verve Health

Updated 25 April 2023

This was an unannounced focused inspection, undertaken due to concerns raised about the safety of clients, the quality of risk assessments, the quality and outcome of investigations and the overall management of governance systems. We did not look at all key lines of enquiry during this inspection. However, the information we gathered provided enough information to make a judgement about the quality of care. We have reported and rated in the following domains:

• Safe
• Effective

We have reported in the well-led domain but have not rated in this domain as we did not cover all the key lines of enquiry.

Verve Health is a residential substance misuse service in Norfolk that provides detoxification and rehabilitation treatment for people using drugs or alcohol. The service has been registered with the Care Quality Commission since June 2021 to provide accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse.

The service does not currently have a registered manager in post. A manager is currently working at the service and has submitted their registered manager application. The last registered manager deregistered in May 2022.

During our previous inspection of Verve Health, we said the provider had not made the necessary improvements required since being inspected in May 2021 to ensure clients were kept safe from harm and we found continued breaches under Regulations 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 18 Staffing, Regulation 17 Good governance, Regulation 9 Person-centred care and Regulation 11 Need for consent. Following this inspection, we issued a Notice of Proposal in August 2022 to cancel the providers registration as a service provider.

During this inspection we found some improvements had been made. However, we found continued breaches under Regulation 9 Person-centred care, Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing.

Following this inspection, we issued the provider a Notice of Decision to cancel the providers registration.

What people who use the service say

We did not speak with clients during this inspection. This was a focused inspection to review specific concerns.

Updated 25 April 2023

Verve Health is a residential substance misuse service in Norfolk that provides detoxification and rehabilitation treatment for people using drugs or alcohol.

This was our third inspection of the service. This inspection was an unannounced, focused inspection to review key areas of risk relating to client safety, incident management and safe staffing.

At our inspection in July and August 2022, we found breaches under Regulation 9 Person-centred care, Regulation 11 Need for consent, Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing.

During this follow up inspection, we found some improvements had been made. However, we found continued breaches under Regulation 9 Person-centred care, Regulation 11 Need for consent, Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing. Following this inspection, we issued a Notice of Decision to cancel the providers registration.

We did not look at all key lines of enquiry during this inspection. However, the information we gathered provided enough information to make judgements and rate the quality of care.

We have reported and rated in the following domains:

• Safe
• Effective

We have reported in the well-led domain but have not rated in this domain as we did not cover all the key lines of enquiry.

We found the following areas of concern:

• Staff were not working with clients to create individualised care plans. Care plans did not always reflect the needs of clients and were not always personalised, holistic or recovery oriented.
• Staff did not manage risks to people who use the services. Risk assessments continued to not accurately identify risks that had been raised during initial assessment and were not always updated following incidents. Risk management plans did not reflect risks identified within the risk assessments or the initial assessments.
• Staff continued to not have received all basic training for their roles, meaning we could not be assured they were safely carrying out their roles. Overall, 56% of staff had not completed training in substance misuse and did not have basic skills to deliver a safe substance misuse service.
• Managers continued to not support staff with appraisals or supervision, meaning staff performance was not being monitored.
• Managers continued to not provide an induction for all new staff.
• Managers continued to not hold regular full staff team meetings to ensure key information was shared.

However:

• Governance processes had been implemented but were not yet fully embedded within the service.
• Safeguarding training levels had improved, and the service now had a safeguarding lead in place.

Staff regularly reviewed the effects of medications on each client's mental and physical health. The medical team undertook physical health checks before initiating a treatment and detoxification plan. GP summaries were present in all files.

Updated 25 April 2023