Archived: Lifeline Hull Recovery Service

Updated 27 February 2017

Lifeline is a registered charity and a national provider of drug and alcohol services. Established in 1971, the organisation has CQC registered services across England.

In 2014, Hull City Council commissioned a group of organisations to provide a drug and alcohol treatment and support system under the umbrella brand name ReNew. As part of this system, the local authority awarded Lifeline two contracts to provide community services for adults with substance misuse problems. This included the delivery of the following elements across the two contracts:

• Early interventions.

• Harm minimisation.

• Specialist prescribing including community detoxification.

• Care co-ordination.

• Psychosocial interventions including counselling.

• Long term in treatment.

• Through care and aftercare.

• A discreet needle-exchange service for clients identified as at risk.

• Family and carer work.

The Hull Lifeline provision operates from three sites:

• The Octagon, covering central Hull and accessible from the main transport links.

• Bransholme, covering North Hull.

• Gypsyville, covering West Hull.

At the time of our inspection, the service was working with approximately 1400 clients.

Due to management changes, at the time of this inspection, Lifeline was in the process of registering a new CQC manager for Hull. In the interim, the organisation’s responsible CQC person and a registered manager from elsewhere in the same directorate were covering this role. The service was registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

CQC have not inspected this service previously.

Updated 27 February 2017

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• Staff were caring and non-judgemental. Clients felt supported and were able to be honest and open with staff about their problems. Staff encouraged clients to progress in their recovery and promoted improved social functioning.

• Staff saw clients for assessment within national targets. They were given flexibility in appointments and the location they wished to attend. The service was improving its programme for group activities. Clients were involved in their recovery plans which were regularly reviewed.

• Staff reviewed risks regularly and took actions to manage identified risks. This included regular harm minimisation advice, the availability of safe storage boxes, providing naloxone kits to those at risk of opiate overdose and a discreet needle exchange for those with high risk injecting behaviours.

• Staff knew when and how to report incidents. Staff provided clients and families with information on how to complain. Staff shared lessons learned from incidents and complaints in team meetings and supervision sessions.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• The service did not effectively monitor and review training. It was unclear which training units staff were expected to complete as mandatory. It was also unclear how often staff were required to refresh their training. The training figures provided during the inspection showed low completions in many units. This included mental capacity act awareness. Staff mostly joined the organisation with prior training in the delivery of psychosocial interventions. However, the service did not ensure they remained up to date.

• Recovery plans were unstructured and did not prompt staff to consider specific domains. This meant that identified needs were not always included as needed.

• Staff did not fully explore a client’s physical health needs.

• There was limited space for both staff and clients at the Octagon.