Via - R3 - Redbridge

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• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

This means we looked for evidence that the service met people’s needs.

At our last inspection we rated this key question as good.

At this assessment the rating has remained good.

This meant people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery.

We have not awarded this service a score for Responsive.

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

Staff engaged with clients, and their families (where appropriate) to develop support plans that met their needs and ensured they had the relevant information needed to make informed decisions about their care.

In the records we reviewed we saw clients’ voice. For example, highlighting what they wanted from their treatment.

Clients reported that they felt supported, informed and involved with their treatment decisions and care planning. All clients we spoke with reported they had discussed their plan of care with the team and were happy with it.

The service had a well established peer mentor and lived experience programme and had increased peer-led and peer-supported activities across all phases of treatment. Over 2 years the service had trained over 20 peer mentors and increased their number of women peer mentors. In 2025, peer mentors led on the design and implementation of the fourth Annual Recovery Awards. At the event peer mentors performed music and spoken word pieces about their history and recovery journey. Peer mentors led on afternoon activities including art, writing and games. They also spent time in reception each day engaging with service users and encouraging a range of ways to give feedback about care.

The service understood the diverse health and care needs of people in their local community and worked to provide joined-up, flexible care that supported choice and continuity.

Staff were aware of a range of external services that may be useful to clients and directed and supported them to access those services if they needed help. For example, local employment support.

Due to a high demand for in-patient detox, the service decided to block purchase beds at a known service to make sure they had spaces if their clients needed this. This had been done to enable proactive response to presenting needs.

Staff understood and respected the individual needs of each client. Staff showed a good understanding of clients’ needs, social circumstances and goals. During keywork sessions staff discussed clients’ personal preferences and goals. All clients we spoke to stated that their needs were being met.

Staff planned clients’ discharge and worked with external agencies to ensure that this went well. There was a multidisciplinary meeting with community services to review discharges from the service.

Staff provided clients, their family members and carers with access to appropriate emotional support.

The service had been able to provide clients with digital equipment such as mobile phones and laptops, to support them with getting connected. This has supported clients to apply for jobs, support with housing and keeping connected with loved ones.

Clients told us about extra activities provided, such as support with housing, counselling, employment support, crisis services and community peer support groups.

The service provided information in staff areas about support and groups for physical health conditions and ways to get support. For example, about the signs and symptoms of toxic shock syndrome and breast cancer. There was a poster about the symptoms and support available in health services for perimenopause and menopause. Period products and condoms were available in bathroom areas.

The service had posters and information for staff and clients about how to seek help for well-being, mental health and domestic abuse.

The service provided up to date information about important areas in formats that were tailored to the client group, and individual needs, where necessary. This included leaflets people could take home as well as posters on service walls. Staff also spoke with clients about external services that could support them.

The service had information leaflets available in languages spoken by the clients and local community. Managers made sure staff and clients could get help from interpreters or signers when needed.

The service displayed suggestion leaflets in the reception area as a way for clients or carers and family to provide feedback on the service they had received. The service also displayed what they had learnt from suggestions and what they had done about it as a form of feedback. For example, clients who attended the women’s group requested a health visitor to attend. Since September 2025 a registered nurse attended the group and provided personal consultations.

Staff enabled clients to give feedback on the service they received by completing surveys. The service last staff survey was completed in 2024. The next survey is due to take place following our inspection.

The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results, and shared these with the whole team and the wider service. Complaint investigations and outcomes were discussed at monthly integrated governance team meetings to ensure learning.

The service had received 3 formal complaints in the 12 months prior to inspection. Two were not upheld by the service following investigation, one was partially upheld. These were related to the process to restart opioid substitution therapy (OST) medication, delayed access to training and not meeting communication needs and the prescribing policy from a carer. We reviewed three complaints and found the responses to be appropriate, with evidence of meeting with the client where appropriate.

Most clients and carers knew how to complain or raise concerns if they needed to. The service also had complaints and compliment leaflets accessible to clients, which advised them how to make a complaint. These were displayed in the waiting area.

Staff knew how to handle complaints appropriately. Staff dealt with informal complaints immediately if a client or their representative approached them. If necessary, staff escalated the complaint to the team managers or service manager.

The service received 150 compliments between April 2025 and March 2026. Comments from clients included how supportive the service had been and that the service was a life saver.

The service had a clear referral and acceptance criteria.

The building was accessible for clients who lived with a physical disability.

At the time of the inspection waiting time for an assessment was 2 weeks. However, clients who needed urgent referrals were able to receive same day access to the service.

Late and evening clinics were available for clients who needed these.

The service discharged people when specialist treatment was no longer necessary and worked with clients to plan discharge.

Managers told us that the service was currently actively working to reach more people in the community who needed their services with mental health needs. The service was doing this by having a staff member attend local mental health hospitals.

The service offered a door to door Naloxone service which started in October 2025. This enabled those who live in an area where Via provide the drug and alcohol service to access free Naloxone by post. It included a training video for first time users, who are signposted to local services if under 18, or out of borough. The service and leaflet have been widely promoted across the borough to local partners.

The service was aware of the importance of equity in experience and outcomes and worked with partners to aim for this. The service tailored the care, support and treatment in response to this.

The service provided several initiatives to engage groups who may find it hard to access services. For example, development of the women’s space and interventions for women, improving outcomes for prison-leavers and improved joint working with mental health services.

The service had developed partnership work with a range of health and wellbeing services that brought specialist provisions directly to service users. This included a dentist charity providing check-ups and any on-the-spot treatment that is achievable, making referrals to other services as needed. A local acute trust provided a mobile liver scanning unit that visited every 3 months and enabled a non-invasive assessment of liver health. The service used its available data to establish which service users would benefit most from this. Another acute trust was able to provide access to PrEP and PEP, medicines which are used to prevent HIV before and after potential exposure.

Via Capital Card Team partnered with a wide range of partners including London Zoo, Historical Palaces, Kew Gardens, and sports arenas, to offer days out to service users and their families. The service had developed employment training and education pathways with local employment services. This had supported clients to start employment.

The service had developed and embedded a peer mentor service with visible lived experience. Peer mentors were actively engaged in groups and activities available within the service and played an active role in the planning and delivery of the Recovery Awards. They supported the service with consultations to ensure the service responded to the needs of individuals. Following recent feedback from service users through their peer mentors, the service introduced photography and music groups.

Across 2024-2025, the service had conducted equity-focused self assessments examining provisions for women and girls, LGBTQ+ communities and people with a learning disability, neurodivergent conditions and autism. As a result, the service established active partnerships with community organisations and sexual health providers, offered additional training to its staff and updated availability of easy read information.

The service ensured that when a client was coming towards the end of their care, appropriate groups and signposting were completed. Staff completed work with the client surrounding confidence building and explanation of the next steps in their recovery. For example, some clients could attend the recovery hub, supporting building resilience and ability to remain abstinent.

The service worked with people and their families around preparation for discharge. Clients we spoke to stated that they were able to make decisions about this.

Clients talked about the service saving their life and noted that the aftercare was exceptional.