Archived: Young Addaction Halton

Updated 6 March 2017

Halton borough council commissioned Young Addaction Halton. It provided a service for young people aged between 10 and 18 years old. It provided a service to young adults aged up to 25 years who had additional needs. Some groups and individual work took place within the team base. Tier two and tier three specialist substance misuse interventions were mainly undertaken in local schools, colleges and other young people services in the area. At weekends staff travelled to other areas of Halton in a specially designed bus. This enabled staff to concentrate on community engagement and assertive outreach and young people were encouraged to find out more about the work of Young Addaction Halton.

There were two elements to the service. Much of the work provided by the service was not specifically relating to substance misuse. However, the focus was upon engaging with young people and children to be in a position to intervene early where possible. Once young people were engaged with any element of the service they had rapid access to a range of resources and interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness of substance misuse issues. This was part of the service’ long-term harm reduction strategy. Interventions focused upon alcohol, drug and solvent issues as well as sexual health and relationships.

Local service providers could directly refer young people to the service for specialist substance misuse support. The majority of these interventions were offered on an individual basis through clinics run within the local schools, colleges and other young person services. Groups were also provided. A number of the groups did not specifically provide alcohol or other substance misuse intervention. However, the engagement with increased numbers of young people enabled a larger audience to target for longer-term harm reduction.

Young Addaction Halton provided education about substances and specialist psychological interventions, which were evidence, based and followed recommendations from the national treatment agency. The service also focused upon the development of self-esteem, self-confidence, and life skills and provided information about maintaining safety and developing effective relationships.

Other young people’s services also provided interventions within the building where Young Addaction Halton was based. This included the local sixth form. Young Addaction Halton was part of an integrated care pathway for young people. The service provided tier two and three specialist substance misuse interventions. Staff worked closely with both tier one services, such as GPs, teachers and health visitors and tier four child and adolescent mental health services. Young people could pass along tiers one to four dependent upon their needs. A local acute trust was responsible for provision of sexual health screenings and information and for the clinic room and the equipment required to do this.

Young Addaction Halton service had been registered since May 2015. This was the first inspection undertaken by the care quality commission.

Updated 6 March 2017

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• Young Addaction Halton had good systems in place to enable the service to be provided safely and effectively. These included effective management of referral to initial contact targets, good quality documentation, care plans and risk assessments, effective safe visiting processes, and good quality accommodation, in age appropriate settings where young people were being seen.

• There were clear information sharing arrangements in place which were understood by the young people. Capacity, confidentiality, and how and when staff may breach confidentiality were clearly recorded in each clinical record. The service provided clear written information regarding capacity and confidentiality in a range of formats that were age appropriate.

• Interventions to address substance misuse were evidence based and followed national treatment agency recommendations. The service focused significant resources upon engaging with young people. Many of these young people had not actually misused substances. The ethos of the service was to provide support and activities to young people focused upon increasing self-esteem, self-confidence and building resilience by addressing issues such as bullying and anti-social behaviours. This targeted the young people most vulnerable to future substance misuse. Young Addaction Halton was able to provide targeted, good quality preventative education, discussion, and referral.

• We saw evidence of effective close working with other appropriate young people’s services, safeguarding teams, police, housing providers, and commissioners. There was good communication with GPs, other primary care services and schools and colleges.

• Service user involvement and feedback was a central feature of Young Addaction Halton. Young people’s views and contributions were clearly valued and encouraged, there was evidence that these shaped service developments.

• Young Addaction Halton used information and data to support ongoing development of services. There was access to detailed demographic information, local intelligence to target areas of greatest need within the locality. This demonstrated they made best use of their resources.