Archived: The Zone

Updated 23 December 2021

The Zone is a charity based in Plymouth city centre which provides a range of support services to young people. It provides two distinct services that are registered with CQC known as Icebreak and Insight. Insight is an early intervention service for adults aged 18 to 65 who are experiencing their first episode of psychosis. Insight is a secondary mental health service working in partnership with Livewell Southwest CIC. Livewell Southwest is a Plymouth based provider who provides community and inpatient mental health services. In 2020 the service registered another service at 52 North Street.

As well as the two CQC registered services, the Zone provides services that are not within the scope of CQC: a sexual health service and a housing and accommodation service. The Zone and its commissioners aim to provide holistic care in one place to make them easily accessible.

The Zone is registered with CQC for treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service had a registered manager and a clinical lead overseeing each of the CQC registered services; Insight and Icebreak.

What people who use the service say

We spoke with six patients and two carers. They were unanimously positive about the service. They found it very accessible and welcomed accommodation and housing services being in the same building. They said staff treated them with kindness and respect. They felt involved in their care and treatment and gave many examples of positive impact the service had had upon their lives.

Updated 23 December 2021

The Zone is a charity based in Plymouth city centre which provides a range of support services to young people. It provides two distinct services that are registered with CQC known as Icebreak and Insight. Icebreak is for younger people aged 16 to 22 who are experiencing severe emotional distress that are influencing their day-to-day lives and mental well-being. This service is for patients who may have an emerging personality disorder.

The Zone was last inspected in July 2019. The service was rated good overall with a rating of good for the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led domains. There were no requirements made at that inspection.

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service provided safe care. Clinical premises where patients were seen were safe and clean. The number of patients on the caseload of the teams, and of individual members of staff, was not too high to prevent staff from giving each patient the time they needed. Staff managed waiting lists to ensure that patients who required urgent care were seen promptly. Staff followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.

• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment and in collaboration with families and carers. They provided a range of treatments that were informed by best-practice guidance and suitable to the needs of the patients. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The teams included or had access to a full range of specialists required to meet the needs of the patients. Managers ensured thatstaff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients and families and carers in decisions about care.
• The service was mostly easy to access. Staff assessed and treated patients who required urgent care promptly and those who did not require urgent care did not wait too long to start treatment. The criteria for referral to the service did not exclude patients who would have benefitted from care.
• The service was well led and the governance processes ensured that that procedures relating to the work of the service ran smoothly.

However:

• The service did not ensure that all patient files contained an up to date risk assessment.

• The service did not always ensure CQC was notified promptly after incidents occurred.

Updated 23 December 2021

The Zone is a charity based in Plymouth city centre which provides a range of support services to young people. It provides two distinct services that are registered with CQC known as Icebreak and Insight. Icebreak is for younger people aged 16 to 22 who are experiencing severe emotional distress that are influencing their day-to-day lives and mental well-being. This service is for patients who may have an emerging personality disorder.

The Zone was last inspected in July 2019. The service was rated good overall with a rating of good for the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led domains. There were no requirements made at that inspection.

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service provided safe care. Clinical premises where patients were seen were safe and clean. The number of patients on the caseload of the teams, and of individual members of staff, was not too high to prevent staff from giving each patient the time they needed. Staff managed waiting lists to ensure that patients who required urgent care were seen promptly. Staff followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.

• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment and in collaboration with families and carers. They provided a range of treatments that were informed by best-practice guidance and suitable to the needs of the patients. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The teams included or had access to a full range of specialists required to meet the needs of the patients. Managers ensured thatstaff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients and families and carers in decisions about care.
• The service was mostly easy to access. Staff assessed and treated patients who required urgent care promptly and those who did not require urgent care did not wait too long to start treatment. The criteria for referral to the service did not exclude patients who would have benefitted from care.
• The service was well led and the governance processes ensured that that procedures relating to the work of the service ran smoothly.

However:

• The service did not ensure that all patient files contained an up to date risk assessment.

• The service did not always ensure CQC was notified promptly after incidents occurred.