Barking and Dagenham Adult SMS Services

The service provides specialist community treatment and support for adults affected by substance and alcohol misuse who live in Barking and Dagenham. This was our first comprehensive inspection of this service.

We rated it as good because:

• The service provided safe care. The premises where clients were seen were clean and well equipped. Staff responded promptly to sudden deterioration in clients’ physical and mental health. Staff made clients aware of harm minimisation and the risks of continued substance and alcohol misuse. Staff followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff developed recovery plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the clients and in line with national guidance on best practice.
• The teams included or had access to the range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients under their care. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of clients. They actively involved clients in decisions and recovery planning.
• The service was easy to access. Staff planned and managed discharge well and signposted people to alternative pathways when the service could not meet their needs.
• The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that its procedures ran smoothly.

However:

• One of the fire exit routes was not fit for purpose and the fire risk assessment was not up to date.
• Staff did not consistently wear their personal alarms. There were no records kept on site demonstrating regular and consistent alarm testing.
• Notes and information from safeguarding meetings and clinical review meetings were not always added to clients’ records.
• Temperatures of medicines storage areas were monitored by staff, but staff had followed the provider’s protocol to safeguard the medicines when temperatures fell outside the recommended range.
• Not all clients’ recovery plans included details of the recovery focused psychosocial activities and groups as part of their treatment and support and not all clients had not received a copy of their recovery plan.