Southampton Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service

Updated 10 September 2021

Southampton Drug & Alcohol Recovery Service is a community-based substance misuse service provided by Change Grow Live. Change Grow Live (CGL) is a voluntary sector organisation specialising in substance misuse and criminal justice intervention projects in England and Wales. Southampton Drug & Alcohol Recovery Service (also known as Southampton CGL) provides support to adults who live in Southampton who require treatment for alcohol and illicit substance misuse.

They offer a range of services including initial advice, assessment and harm reduction services including needle exchange, prescribed medicines for alcohol and opiate detoxification and stabilisation, naloxone dispensing, group recovery programmes, one-to-one key working sessions and doctor and nurse clinics which includes health checks and blood borne virus testing.

The service was registered with the commission on 11 May 2020 and this was the first inspection where we provided a rating since registering.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of inspection.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activity:

• Treatment for disease, disorder and injury.

This was an unannounced inspection, which meant staff and clients did not know that we would be visiting.

What people who use the service say

We spoke to six clients remotely as part of a group discussion. All six clients spoke very positively of the service they were currently receiving. Many said, “they couldn’t fault it” and were happy with the care and treatment they were receiving. Some commented that they had minimal contact from their recovery co-ordinator but had lots of contact from other staff, such as those in the psychosocial team.

Updated 10 September 2021

Southampton Drug & Alcohol Recovery Service is a community-based substance misuse service provided by Change Grow Live.

This service had not previously been rated.

We rated this location as good because:

• The service provided safe care. The premises where clients were seen were safe and clean. The number of clients on the caseload of the teams, and of individual members of staff, was not too high to prevent staff from giving each client the time they needed. Staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the clients and in line with national guidance about best practice. The service offered a full timetable of groups, medical reviews, recovery work and counselling.
• The teams included or had access to the full range of specialists, for example, nurses, pharmacists, a consultant psychiatrist, a psychologist, recovery workers with various specialisms, and psychosocial workers, required to meet the needs of clients under their care. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. The teams had effective working relationships with other relevant teams within the organisation, such as the hospital in-reach, homelessness and criminal justice teams, and with relevant services outside the organisation, such as the community mental health teams, local GP surgeries and the general hospital.
• Staff treated clients with compassion, kindness and understood the individual needs of clients. They actively involved clients in decisions about the service and their care. We spoke with six clients who all spoke very positively of the service they were currently receiving.
• The service was easy to access. Staff planned and managed discharge well and had alternative pathways for people whose needs it could not meet.
• The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that its procedures ran smoothly. Staff felt respected, supported and valued.

However:

• We reviewed six client care and treatment records and found that risk reviews and service user plans were out of date. Records also lacked detail and it was not easy to find information.
• A client told us they had not received feedback about a complaint.

Updated 10 September 2021