The Haynes Clinic Limited Also known as Chicksands

Updated 16 June 2023

The Haynes Clinic is a residential substance misuse service, which opened in 2009. The service provides residential rehabilitation, detoxification, and a holistic therapy approach to addiction, that includes supporting clients to access the 12-Step principles of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. Clients engage in 1 to 1 cognitive behavioural therapy, family relationship groups and group therapy sessions. All clients self-refer and are privately funded.

The Haynes Clinic includes a therapy unit known as ‘the clinic’ and 2 residential houses, one for males and the other for females. The clinic provides treatment for up to 18 clients. Clients engage in a therapy programme held at the clinic in Chicksands, Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am to 5pm. At all other times, including weekends, the clients reside in 1 of the 2 houses completing written exercises as part of their programme, attending groups in the community, maintaining relationships with friends and family and having personal time to themselves. The houses run as small therapeutic communities with all clients and staff sharing the household duties.

At the time of inspection, the service had a registered manager and a nominated individual.

The Haynes Clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide:

• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
• accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse.

We previously inspected The Haynes Clinic in January 2020 and rated it as good overall.

Following this inspection, we issued the provider with requirement notices for regulations 10, 12, 16 and 17. These related to person centred care, dignity and respect, safe care and treatment, good governance and receiving and acting on complaints.

What people who use the service say

During our inspection we spoke with 4 female clients and 3 male clients. In addition, we contacted 3 clients who had previously used the service after the inspection (known as discharged clients). We spoke with 10 clients in total.

All the clients we spoke to told us they felt safe at the Haynes Clinic during their treatment.

We spoke to a client who explained their needs were not being met due to their learning difficulty and obstacles they were facing with the written work as part of their treatment programme. They asked us to forward these concerns to the staff at the clinic which we did.

All the clients we spoke to informed us that during group therapy sessions sometimes personal information about clients had been shared. The clients thought this was helpful towards their recovery. Three clients informed us that discussing difficult subjects with their peers was a useful tool to help them through their treatment.

We found that the 3 discharged clients we spoke to had remained abstinent from substances since their treatment at The Haynes Clinic in 2022. These clients all agreed that counsellors used a ‘tough love’ approach at times during their treatment although they said they did not feel ‘bullied’.

Some clients told us about how the environment at the clinic and on the residential houses could be updated and they described some of the furniture as ‘shabby’.

Updated 16 June 2023

The Haynes Clinic is a substance misuse inpatient service for males and females in Chicksands in Bedfordshire.

We conducted an on-site inspection to The Haynes Clinic in January 2023. We completed a focused, unannounced inspection, because we received information of concern about the sexual safety of clients and the quality of the service. We inspected the safe domain and have applied a new rating. We also inspected parts of caring, responsive and well led, however we have not applied new ratings to these domains.

Our rating of safe went down. We rated it as requires improvement.

Our findings were:

• We found that not all staff that had direct contact with clients in the service and residential houses had an up to date disclosure and barring certificate or associated risk assessment.
• Clients were not always treated with dignity and respect by therapy staff. Three complaints described treatment at the service as traumatising and emotionally distressing due to the undignified way they were spoken to by staff.
• We found that compliance with mandatory training requirements was below 40% for all staff across office, care and therapy sub teams. There were additional staff employed by the service who were not on the training register.
• Staff supervision and appraisal records were not always meaningful, they lacked new information month by month and did not demonstrate any measurable performance management.
• When complaints were made to the service there was no evidence that an appropriate investigation into the complaint occurred. There was no record within team meeting minutes, staff supervision records or annual staff appraisal records of complaints being shared with the wider staff team. This limited the opportunity for lessons learned, or to identify potential improvements in the service.
• Some policies we reviewed were not robust, they lacked detail and purpose and did not provide a comprehensive instruction for people working at or using the service. The equality and diversity policy and reasonable adjustments statement was not fit for purpose. Staff did not follow the correct procedures for making statutory notifications to the CQC.
• Residential houses and sleeping areas were not always separate for males and females. Although we were told by the service that there are separate male and female houses, there was evidence that some male clients were residing on the female only houses for periods of time during their treatment. Bathrooms were not designated for males and females on the residential houses to support client's privacy.

However:

• The female clients we spoke to said they felt safe at the service.

Updated 16 June 2023

Updated 24 April 2019

Updated 29 September 2021

The service had enough staff. 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 a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the clients and in line with national guidance about best practice.

• The team had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients under their care. Managers ensured that staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team.

• 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 well led, and the governance processes ensured that its procedures ran smoothly.

However:

• Blood pressure and temperature monitoring for one client on a detox regime was not present within their file. This was not in line with The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance which states close monitoring and review is needed.

• The provider’s accommodation was mixed sex. Bathrooms were not designated for males or females and sleeping areas were not separated for males and females.

• The client’s kitchen area at the clinic where clients could make hot drinks was unclean