The Calico Group - St Johns Court Also known as Blackburn with Darwen Drug and Alcohol Service

Updated 18 October 2023

The Calico Group - St Johns Court was based in Blackburn and provided community based support for people in Blackburn and Darwen who misuse substances. Services offered include:

• Clinical assessment

• Clinical interventions

• Psychosocial interventions

• Prescribing

• Detoxification

• Rapid access prescribing

• Drug testing

The provider was Delphi Medical Consultants Ltd. The Calico Group - St Johns Court has been registered with CQC since 12 April 2022. The service is registered to provide the regulated activity of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service had a registered manager.

The service has not been inspected by CQC, this is the first inspection.

What people who use the service say

We spoke with 11 clients and one carer.

Clients told us the staff were very respectful, helpful and caring. Staff encouraged people to develop hobbies and interests as an alternative to misusing substances. People felt listened to by staff. If they missed an appointment, staff would ring them to see how they were.

Clients told us the variety of support was helpful for their recovery, including one to one sessions, group work and support with other areas of their life including housing. Within one to one sessions, goals and aims were discussed. Clients said the groups were very helpful with challenging negative thoughts and beliefs and preparing them to be members of their local community again.

Clients valued the peer support offered to them from people with previous lived experience.

However there had been a turnover of staff which meant that clients had worked with several different recovery workers, this made it difficult to have consistency.

Three clients felt groups were not appropriate for them. Staff had respected this and explored other support.

One client was not aware of their care plan or risk assessment and did not know how to give feedback about the service.

Ideas for further development of the service that clients shared with us included a detox pod, to help people when they were reducing their substitute prescription and discuss with peers how they will cope. Another suggestion was an aftercare café where people with lived experience would volunteer to support others.

Updated 18 October 2023

We rated it as requires improvement because:

• The service did not provide safe care. Staff did not assess and manage risk well for all clients.
• Client records were not complete and contemporaneous.
• The service did not develop holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment for all clients.
• Staff did not receive all training relevant for their role.
• The service was not well led, the governance processes did not ensure that its procedures ran smoothly.
• Staff records did not comply with the requirements of Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Records did not include health screening and full work history.

However:

• The service provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the clients and in line with national guidance about best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients under their care. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of clients. They actively involved clients in decisions and care planning.
• The service was easy to access. Staff planned and managed discharge well and were responsive to the needs of clients that were more difficult to reach.

Updated 18 October 2023