- Community substance misuse service
STARS (Southend Treatment and Recovery Service)
Assessment report published 21 May 2026
Contents
Ratings - Community-based substance misuse services
Our view of the service
Southend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS) was inspected on 10 February 2026. STARS, run by the Forward Trust is a community-based substance misuse service. The Forward Trust operates over 70 projects, helping more than 20,000 people each year through community services and prison programmes. It offers advice, treatment, and recovery support, including abstinence-based programmes in community, residential, prison, and online settings. The service also helps individuals build employability skills through training, job support, and business guidance.
STARS provide support to adult residents in Southend-on Sea, impacted by drugs and alcohol. The service offers brief therapeutic interventions, on a one a one basis or in structured groups alongside clinical support with ambulatory detox (an outpatient detox from drugs and alcohol providing assessment, prescriptions, and monitoring) for people. The service also prescribes opiate substitute medication and offers outreach support, a rough sleepers initiative, prison in-reach, a needle exchange, blood borne virus and Hepatitis B vaccinations and naloxone training. Services are aimed at recovery and rehabilitation and include assessment, information, advice, treatment, and referral for residents of Southend-on-Sea.
This service was registered by CQC on 6 May 2022. At the time of inspection, the service had a registered manager and nominated individual. The service was registered to provide treatment of disease, disorder, or injury. This was our second comprehensive inspection of the service, across all key questions and quality statements. We last inspected this service in 2023 where it was rated good overall and for each key question except for effective which was rated as requires improvement. We identified a breach at that inspection for person centred care as the service did not ensure that all people’s files included a documented record of unexpected exit from treatment plans. At this inspection, the service had made improvements and was no longer in breach of regulations. Managers now ensured that staff documented unexpected exit from treatment plans. We rated the service as good overall.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 4 people using the service and 2 family members, and reviewed additional people’s feedback, all of which was overwhelmingly positive. They reported that staff treated them with kindness, respect, and without judgement, and that they felt safe in their care. Many highlighted staff empathy and lived experience. People spoke positively about group sessions as an important part of their recovery. Overall, feedback reflected a supportive, flexible environment with dedicated and compassionate staff.
People using the service reported that staff were discreet, respectful, and responsive, providing help, emotional support, and advice when needed. They said they were involved in their care plans, understood their treatment, and had regular reviews. Feedback highlighted staff as kind, compassionate, honest, and professional, with many compliments received between February and October 2025 recognising individual contributions.
We received positive feedback from family members about the support they received from the service, including the option to attend family support groups.
People attended monthly forum meetings, which were well attended and encouraged people to share their views and experiences. Feedback from these meetings were positive, and suggestions for new activities or improvements were considered, with actions reviewed and progress documented.