Archived: Swanswell Newbury

Updated 19 July 2019

Swanswell is a national drug and alcohol charity that has recently become part of the Cranstoun group. Swanswell Newbury provides treatment and support to adults aged 18 and over with a substance misuse need living in West Berkshire. The service offers group and one-to-one psychosocial interventions, and community alcohol detox, and has a sub-contracting agreement with a local GP surgery to provide opiate substitution therapy. The service also offers screening for blood borne viruses, a needle exchange, and family and carer support. At the time of this inspection, the service was treating a total of 373 clients, with an average of 90 people per week in contact with the team.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

Treatment for disease, disorder or injury

Diagnostic and screening procedures

A registered manager was in place. The service was last inspected in October 2016, at which time CQC did not rate substance misuse services. We asked the provider to ensure that physical health checks were carried with clients when they started treatment, to ensure the needle exchange was kept locked when not in use, and to ensure that physical health equipment was appropriately calibrated. These actions had all been completed prior to this inspection.

Updated 19 July 2019

We rated Swanswell Newbury as Good.

• The service provided safe care. 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 managed waiting lists well to ensure that patients who required urgent care were seen promptly. Staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment and in collaboration with clients. They provided a range of treatments that were informed by best-practice guidance and suitable to the needs of the clients.
• Managers ensured that staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood their individual needs. They actively involved clients and families and carers in care decisions.
• The service was easy to access. Staff assessed and treated clients who required urgent care promptly and those who did not require urgent care did not wait too long to start treatment. The criteria for referral to the service did not exclude clients who would have benefitted from care.
• The service was well-led and the governance processes ensured that that procedures relating to the work of the service ran smoothly.

However:

• Since the organisation had joined a larger group of charities, there was not yet a unified set of policies and procedures and staff had access to policies for the parent organisation as well as the ones specific to the service. No risk to service users arose from this, because staff understood all relevant clinical policies clearly understood, but there was scope for confusion amongst staff.
• There was scope to improve staff morale. Staff told us that better terms and conditions offered to staff doing the same roles within other services run by the same provider had an impact on staff morale and retention.

Updated 19 July 2019