Archived: Young Addaction Halton

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.