Camden Community Drug Treatment Service

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

This means we looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At this inspection, we have rated it as good.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness. They understood the individual needs of clients and supported clients to understand and managed their care and treatment. This included understanding people’s particular needs relating to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability and social circumstances.

Staff directed clients to other services when appropriate, and, if requested, supported them to access those services. There were leaflets available in the reception area of the service. These external services included physical health services, education and employment support, medication support, legal advice, drug checking service and dates and information about benefits and managing debt.

We spoke to 6 clients and 6 carers who were using the service. They all spoke very highly of the staff. During our inspection we saw staff communicating positively with clients. Relationships with clients were caring respectful and supportive.

The service had clear confidentiality policies in place that were understood and adhered to by staff.

Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about clients. Staff said they could raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory or abusive behaviour or attitudes towards clients without fear of negative consequences.

One client told us that they could not ask for a better service. Clients also praised the clean and welcoming environment, the availability of out-of-hours support, and the proactive communication from staff, particularly regular check-ins from keyworkers.

Clients reported feeling listened to and involved in decisions about their care and treatment. Many praised the person-centred and holistic approach. They highlighted the effective treatment programmes and regular reviews of their care, clear explanations regarding medicines and side effects. They spoke positively about flexible appointment arrangements including telephone and online support.

Staff involved clients in risk assessments and care planning and actively sought their feedback on the quality of care provided. They ensured that clients had easy access to additional support.

Staff communicated with clients so they understood their care and treatment. Staff offered clients information leaflets about the service. Staff we spoke with demonstrated that they thought about each client as an individual and how they responded to client’s individual needs, preferences and behaviours.

Staff had regular appointments with clients to review their care and treatment plans and staff gave information leaflets about their treatment for dependence on alcohol or an opioid based substance. Records we reviewed showed that a risk management plan had been discussed and signed by the client.

The service made adjustments for people in response to their needs, including protected characteristics or for those with communication support needs.

The service had created both a women-only evening, so women felt more comfortable in these spaces had the option to attend these.

There was a large, bright notice board at the entrance of the service that made it clear LGBTQ+ plus people, both staff and clients, would be welcomed and respected within the service.

The service engaged with commissioners, social care, the voluntary sector, and the local community, to ensure services were planned, developed and delivered to meet the needs of the local population including those in vulnerable circumstances.

Staff we spoke to stated that treatment depended on what the client wanted support with. Staff made a plan to support them with what they wanted to achieve. We saw staff recorded clients’ individual goals in detail and discussed these in a caring and compassionate way.

Clients we spoke with stated that they felt involved in their care. They were offered regular appointments which were never rushed, felt listened to and encouraged to reach their goals. Staff stated that they supported clients to make decisions about their own care during meetings. Staff stated that they would decide with clients what the next steps would be and have a discussion surrounding it.

Clients spoke positively about the wide range of recovery-focused interventions. These included counselling, peer support groups, acupuncture, yoga, meditation and employment support. Clients said these were highly valued groups, facilitated well by staff. Clients told us that groups were very good, that they were encouraged to speak up and be themselves, and spaces where they were supported to speak up about what was and was not helpful in their recovery. All clients told us that the service was great for people recovering from substance misuse. One client told us that the service saved their life.

Staff attended daily meetings where they reviewed changing risks to clients. We saw that staff discussed and took into account people’s individual needs, views and wishes.

All staff we spoke with stated that they felt supported by direct managers.

Staff said morale was generally positive and they were happy to be delivering these services and working with their colleagues. Several staff said that discussions about current pay structures were diminishing overall morale.

The provider had a comprehensive training programme for staff that reflected the needs of the client group. The service also had continued professional development (CPD) opportunities. For example, apprenticeships and degrees that staff could apply access. Staff we spoke with said they were happy with the wide range of training that was available and they were given time to access this training.

All staff were offered regular supervision. During our inspection we reviewed 3 supervision records and saw that staff’s wellbeing and reasonable adjustments were being considered.

The service held regular meetings for the staff group. This included flash and multidisciplinary meetings where information surrounding their daily or ongoing work was discussed.

Staff said if they had any concerns, they would be able to raise this with managers and they knew who to go to surrounding whistleblowing concerns. There were processes in place to manage formal feedback from staff, and this was managed appropriately.

There were opportunities for staff members to develop within their roles and progress to more senior roles.

The service had several initiatives in place to support staff wellbeing. There were posters and information for staff and clients about how to seek help for well-being, mental health and domestic abuse.

Leaders told us some staff during their supervision that they had experienced discriminatory behaviour from clients. These had been investigated well, and learning had come out of these. The service had implemented a behavioural contract service users sign prior to receiving treatment. This outlined a zero tolerance approach to discrimination and this had been enforced when needed.