Updated 28 August 2019

Medwin Road is provided by PCP (Clapham) Limited. The service provides accommodation for clients who are undergoing treatment for substance misuse at the provider’s day service, PCP Clapham, which we inspected at the same time. The services are approximately a 15-minute walk from each other.

Client treatment lasts between two and 12 weeks. Medwin Road accommodates up to four clients and has four bedrooms. A member of staff also sleeps at the service at night and a second staff member remains awake. The service accepts privately funded clients, as well as referrals from statutory agencies.

Medwin Road is registered to provide the following regulated activity: Accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse.

There was no registered manager for the service at the time of the inspection, although they submitted an application immediately following the inspection.

This was the second comprehensive inspection since the service registered on 31 March 2017.

At the last inspection in March 2018, we identified three breaches of the following regulations:

Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014

• Regulation 12 – safe care and treatment
• Regulation 13 – safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment
• Regulation 17 – good governance

We told the provider it must make improvement in the following areas:

• Improve safeguarding adult’s policy and procedure and ensure staff understand arrangements
• Ensure the environment is maintained to a good standard.
• Ensure there are effective system to assess and manage client risk. Clients did not always have completed risk management plans prior to spending their first night at the service
• Improve observations and ensure staff know what to do in response to concerns
• Ensure equipment is calibrated and is fit for purpose
• Ensure Fire safety standards are met
• Ensure appropriate loan working policies and practices are in place
• Ensure staff complete mandatory training
• Ensure there are systems and processes in place to provide assurance of the quality, safety and effectiveness of the service

Updated 28 August 2019

This is the first time we will be rating this substance misuse service.

We rated Medwin Road as good because:

• At our previous inspection in February 2018, we found the provider did not effectively; address potential safeguarding concerns, the environment at Medwin Road was not maintained to an adequate standard and the provider had not ensured that there were systems and processes in place to assess monitor and improve the service and mitigate the risks to clients or staff. At this inspection, we found that the provider had made all the required improvements.
• Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse, and they knew how to apply it. There was a clear procedure in place detailing the local arrangements for identifying and referring adult and children safeguarding incidents to the local authority.
• The premises were safe, clean, well equipped, well furnished, well maintained and fit for purpose. Clients slept at Medwin Road whilst receiving detoxification and therapy at the PCP Clapham day service.
• The service had enough support staff when clients were present in the service, who knew the patients and received basic training to keep people safe from avoidable harm.
• Clients had early exit plans if they left detoxification treatment early. This meant clients had been given information about the risks of leaving treatment early and what behaviours to avoid and minimise risks.
• Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness. They respected clients’ privacy and dignity. They understood the individual needs of clients.
• Staff knew and understood the provider’s vision and values and how they applied to the work of their team.
• Staff had access to the information they needed to provide safe and effective care and used that information to good effect.
• The service had robust arrangements in place to ensure the safety of staff and clients when staff were working alone.

However:

• Although staff had received training in a range of areas pertinent to their role, two out of three members of staff had not been trained to administer naloxone, a medicine used to reverse an opiate overdose.

Updated 22 March 2018