Archived: KCA Thurrock

Updated 28 December 2016

Addaction is one of the UK’s largest specialist treatment charities for drug, alcohol and mental health issues. They have 120 individual contracts across the UK, 63 of which are in England. KCA Thurrock was taken over by Addaction in 2015 and is known as Addaction Visions. It is funded by Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and referrals are made by GPs, by individuals themselves or through the police or courts.

KCA Thurrock is a community service for people with drug or alcohol related problems in the Thurrock area. At the time of inspection 312 clients were being supported by the team. They offer a needle exchange service on site and through local pharmacies, drug and alcohol community detoxification and specialist prescribing for opiate dependence and harm reduction. They also offer group and one to one counselling and therapeutic interventions including cognitive behavioural therapy for people with additional mental health needs. There is also a recovery café offering refreshments and breakfast which is run by ex-clients and volunteers alongside staff. A number of groups meet on site including advocacy and self-help groups.

KCA Thurrock is open from 9am-7.30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and 9am to 5pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. There is also a 24 hour helpline which is open at weekends and bank holidays.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury. There is a registered manager at this location.

We have not inspected this service before.

Updated 28 December 2016

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• Medical reviews did not always take place within 12 weeks as per Addaction’s policy and follow up after clients did not attend appointments was not always timely. Monitoring of medical reviews and missed appointments had not been effectively managed.

• Clients did not always receive regular face to face contact from a worker and some went for long periods without being seen by a member of the team.

• Risk assessments sometimes lacked detail or were not present.

• Managers had not reported seven unexpected deaths to CQC in a timely manner and detailed root cause analyses of these deaths had not taken place.

However, we also found the following areas of good practice:

• Clients were very positive about the care they received and felt that staff listened to them and did not judge them. Staff were passionate about providing high quality client centred services.

• Managers were in the process of introducing a new risk management plan which included managing safeguarding.

• Staff saw clients who were starting treatment in a timely manner. There were no waiting lists for clients to access the service.

• Managers and medical staff were working to address the issues of missed appointments, follow ups and 12 weekly medical reviews.

• Staff completed mandatory training and received regular supervision.