The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated The Haven in Crouch Hill, London, Inadequate, following an inspection which took place in February.
The Haven is an independent, residential substance misuse service provided by registered charity, West London Mission. It can provide accommodation for up to 26 male clients.
CQC carried out a focused inspection of the service to look at how safe and well-led it was, as a result of concerns which were raised about how it was protecting people from avoidable harm, as well as how it managed risk and medicines.
Following the inspection, the rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Inadequate, and it was placed in special measures, meaning it will be kept under review and could face urgent enforcement action if rapid improvements are not made.
CQC’s head of hospital inspection, London, Helen Rawlings, said:
“After inspecting The Haven, we took urgent enforcement action and told the provider it must take action in a number of areas to bring the service in line with legal requirements and to keep people safe. “I am pleased to report that the leadership team responded rapidly and positively to the concerns we raised, devising an urgent action plan to address our immediate concerns. They also put an action plan delivery team in place to oversee the implementation of the plan.
“We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that improvements are made and fully embedded.”
Inspectors had a number of concerns about The Haven:
- The service was not well-led. At the time of the inspection there had been no registered manager in post since February 2020 and there had been a turnover of managers since then. It was undergoing a restructure and all permanent staff had left. An interim management team had been put in place to oversee the service in the meantime.
- The turnover of managers had led to inconsistencies in how the service was managed and this had impacted on the quality of care provided.
- Managers and staff did not always have the information they needed to challenge and improve performance.
- Staff did not assess or manage risk well, which meant people were at risk of avoidable harm.
- Serious incidents were not always investigated appropriately, and measures were not always put in place to prevent further incidents.
- Medicines were not always managed in a safe way and people did not always receive their medicines as prescribed.
- New or temporary staff did not always receive an effective induction and some staff did not know people’s individual needs or how to support them safely.
- Care plans and risk assessments were not always kept up-to-date and staff could not always access the information they needed as the information management system was not fit for purpose.
- Staff did not always feel able to raise concerns without fear of retribution.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published online here.
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