Ark House

Updated 22 April 2022

Ark House is a residential substance misuse service operated by Ark House Rehab Limited. The service is owned by the EA & W Muxlow Charitable Trust. The service provides treatment to rehabilitate people with drug or alcohol dependency. Ark House is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse. Ark House has a registered manager and a nominated individual. (A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered persons have the legal responsibility for the service meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations.) 

The service can accommodate up to 20 clients. Ark House accepts self-funded clients or clients funded by an appropriate authority, for example a local authority. At the time of our inspection, there were 20 clients in treatment. All clients must be free of any substance use before admission. Ark House does not offer detoxification or clinical or prescription medicine treatments. It delivers psychosocial interventions based on the 12-step principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.

There have been six previous inspections carried out at Ark House. We last completed a comprehensive inspection in June 2021. We rated the provider overall Inadequate and Inadequate in the Safe and Well-led domains; and as Requires Improvement in the Effective, Caring and Responsive domains. The service was issued with a notice of proposal to impose conditions which meant the service had to take immediate action to improve medicines management and training, risk assessment of the environment and make other environmental improvements, ensure safe and effective risk assessments of service users and meet the needs of service users and ensure suitable recruitment checks are in place for members of staff and volunteers.

What people who use the service say

We spoke with 15 of 20 clients using the service and seven family members.

All clients and family members spoke highly about the quality of the 12-step programme offered and were happy with the information provided about the service.

Most clients and family members told us that the staff were kind, caring and respectful. Family members told us that staff went above and beyond for clients.

Clients told us that the food had improved, that the menu was good, and they had a choice. One family member fed back that they thought the food was basic.

Most clients told us that the environment had improved and that their rooms were comfortable and acceptable. Some clients and family members told us that the environment was basic. One client was very happy with the room they had but told us that they felt it was cold. There were no concerns raised about the safety of the environment and all clients and family members we spoke with told us that the environment was clean.

We also reviewed client survey feedback between 01 July 2021 – 01 March 2022 which reflected the same feedback as above with an average score for the 12-step programme 9.6 out of 10.

Updated 22 April 2022

Our rating of this location improved. We rated it as good.

• The service provided safe care. The premises where clients lived was safe and clean. Staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided treatment suitable to the needs of the clients and in line with national guidance about best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The teams had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients under their care. Managers ensured that these staff received training and supervision. Staff worked well together as a team and with 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 care planning.
• The service was easy to access. Staff planned and managed discharge well and had alternative pathways for people whose needs it could not meet.
• The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that its procedures ran smoothly.

However:

• The service had further environmental improvements to make. The service had an improvement plan and schedule of works to complete. We saw evidence that the service recorded and responded to maintenance issues quickly.
• The new service user guide was not yet implemented so several restrictions remained within the current guide.
• Not all staff had had a yearly appraisal.

Updated 22 April 2022