• Residential substance misuse service

Archived: East Coast Recovery Ltd

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Recovery Centre, 231 Whapload Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR32 1UL 07901 674654

Provided and run by:
East Coast Recovery Ltd

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 3 October 2019

East Coast Recovery is a specialist substance misuse service that provides residential support for clients who wish to enter treatment for addiction. The service was comprised of a recovery centre and two residential houses, which are next door to each other - Albany and Fairways house. Albany was a mixed gender 12 bed house and Fairways was also a mixed gender house and had 17 beds. At the time of the inspection, 21 beds were in use across both houses.

The service’s therapy programme was based on the 12-Step principles of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. Clients all engaged in individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), group sessions, such as art therapy, and other therapeutic activities. The service has a registered manager who was registered in May 2016. The Care Quality Commission last inspected the service on 01 August 2018. The service was not rated on that occasion.

At the previous inspection the service was found to be non-compliant with the following regulations and issued with requirement notices: Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment: The provider did not have an environmental risk assessment and a ligature risk assessment in place at the treatment centre and both residential houses. The provider did not store controlled drugs in line with national guidance. Regulation 17 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Good governance: The provider did not password protected emails when sharing patient information to staff. The provider submitted an action plan in response to the requirement notices and had addressed the concerns around storage of controlled drugs and password protected e-mails and partly addressed the lack of ligature risk assessment.

East Coast Recovery is registered to provide:

• Accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 3 October 2019

We rated East Coast Recovery as good because:

  • All premises where clients received care were clean, well equipped, well furnished, well maintained and fit for purpose. The service had a full range of rooms and equipment to support treatment and care. The residential accommodation was homely, well-decorated and furnished and had quiet areas where clients could meet visitors and relax.
  • Staff completed comprehensive assessments with clients on admission to the service. They worked with clients to develop individual recovery plans and updated them as needed. We reviewed six recovery plans and found these were comprehensive, reflected the assessed needs, were personalised, holistic and recovery-oriented.
  • Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness. They understood the individual needs of clients and supported them to understand and manage their recovery, care and treatment.
  • The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the investigation outcomes. These were shared with the whole team.
  • Leaders had the skills, knowledge and experience to perform their roles. They had a good understanding of the service they managed and were visible in the service and approachable for clients and staff.

However:

  • There were blind spots and ligature points throughout the recovery centre and the residential houses (a ligature point is anything which could be used to attach a cord, rope or other material for the purpose of hanging or strangulation). The provider risk assessment did not identify individual ligature anchor points within any of the buildings or state how the risk of these could be mitigated. We were concerned that the service was admitting clients with a history of self-ligation without staff being fully aware of the environmental risks and how to mitigate these. The lack of a ligature risk assessment was an issue at the last inspection.
  • Bedroom corridors contained a mixture of male and female bedrooms. There were no locks on the bedroom doors, so clients could not lock the door to maintain their safety, privacy, and dignity.
  • The service did not have an alarm call system in place within the bedrooms and communal areas of the residential houses. Staff did not carry personal alarms. Staff would be unable to summon assistance quickly in these areas if a client or staff member required assistance in an emergency. Alarms were situated in the offices of the residential houses.
  • We found that the risk management plans for clients were generic, all had the same wording and did not give details of how specific risks for individual clients should be managed. We could see evidence from talking with staff, and from client recovery plans, that staff had good knowledge of clients and were aware of their risks. However, this was not reflected in the risk management plans and we were concerned that new staff would not be aware of how to manage client risks by looking at this part of the risk assessment.