Archived: Lifeline North Kirklees

Updated 27 June 2017

Lifeline North Kirklees is one of four services which are jointly commissioned as Kirklees’ Integrated Drug & Alcohol Services for Adults. There are substance misuse services in both North Kirklees and South Kirklees and alcohol services in both North Kirklees and South Kirklees. Lifeline North Kirklees is the substance misuse component of the integrated substance misuse and alcohol service commissioned in North Kirklees. Whilst each of the four services is registered separately with the Care Quality Commission, the services have one registered manager who is responsible for all four locations including Lifeline North Kirklees. The service regards itself as one integrated drugs and alcohol service delivered in four separate locations. This service operates from premises in the centre of Dewsbury.

The service is registered to provide:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The service employs a partnership model of delivery with Lifeline as the lead provider. In the partnership Lifeline North Kirklees is responsible for overall service delivery with a focus on prevention and recovery through psychosocial interventions. The service is commissioned by Kirklees Council – Public Health.

Lifeline North Kirklees has three sub-contracts:

• Locala Community Partnerships – an independent community interest company providing community health services in Kirklees and other areas. This service is sub-contracted to provide medical and prescribing services via a lead GP and nurse prescribers.
• Community Links – a not-for-profit provider of mental health and well-being services in Yorkshire and the Humber. This service is sub-contracted to provide assertive outreach for people with both mental health needs and substance misuse problems.
• The Basement Project – a not for profit self-help charity based in Halifax, Huddersfield and Dewsbury. This service is sub-contracted to provide abstinence support and group programmes.

Lifeline North Kirklees has been inspected twice since it was first registered. At the last inspection on 10 October 2016 we found that Lifeline North Kirklees was not meeting all of Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and the Health and Social Care Act (Registration) Regulations 2009. We issued the provider with one warning notice and one requirement notice for this service.

The warning notice related to the following regulation under the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014:

• Regulation 17 HSCA (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 Good governance.

The requirement notice related to the following regulation under the Health and Social Care Act (Registration) Regulations 2009:

• Regulation 18 HSCA (Registration) Regulations 2009 Notification of other incidents

Updated 27 June 2017

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had responded to the areas of concern identified in the previous inspection. We found that the service had improved systems and processes related to the management of staff. A new system had been introduced to monitor compliance with mandatory training. Staff files showed that staff consistently received an annual appraisal and regular supervision. The service had updated checks with the disclosure and barring service for all staff. The service had undertaken a specific check of all staff member’s ‘right to work’ documentation.
• The service had introduced a risk register and had taken action in response to issues highlighted during the previous inspection related to environmental risks. Client records showed that the service’s approach to assessing and managing clients’ risks had improved since the last inspection. Client records showed that clients were offered blood born virus testing within recommended timescales.
• Staff awareness of the duty of candour had improved since the last inspection and all staff were able to provide a detailed description of the duty of candour and scenarios where it would apply. The service had introduced an electronic register to record incidents and there was evidence that notifiable incidents were consistently reported to the Care Quality Commission.

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

• Whilst all of the actions identified in the previous inspection that the provider must take to improve had completed, the actions identified that the provider should take to improve had not been completed. The service had not introduced an annual audit cycle and the whistleblowing policy and equality and diversity policy was still overdue for review.
• There were issues with the electronic database used to record dates for annual appraisal which meant that compliance data was unreliable.