Impact
Hampshire 24/7
Hampshire 24/7 has continued to receive a large numbers of referrals month-on-month compared with the last year, which meant that staff were managing much higher caseloads than previous years. We have implemented a variety of tools to help manage these.
During weekly allocations meetings we have started to ‘RAG Rate’ referrals. This ensures that the highest risk referrals are prioritised, whilst ensuring that all young people receive a service in a timely fashion.
We have also employed a triage worker who can assess young people and give harm reduction and education on the substances they are using, whilst they are waiting for an allocated worker.
Our service user satisfaction survey results show that:
- 97% of the young people who left the service reported that they felt safer as a result of working with Hampshire 24/7.
- 96% felt that that they were able to make positive choices as a result of working with Hampshire 24/7.
“B has loved his sessions with T. Her help in listening to him has enabled him to become more open about his feelings, become more self-confident and independent. He has ‘grown up’ in his attitude. T has talked to me, and listened to me. The service has been wonderful for my family. I am so grateful to everyone. Thank you.”
– Mum of service user
Inclusion22
This year, we received additional funding from Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), which has provided us with an additional Service Coordinator and a Senior Practitioner for Inclusion22.
In addition, the funding is paying for a Wellbeing Nurse who will work exclusively for Hampshire 24/7 but will be employed by Inclusion. This will make a significant impact to the complex clients we are seeing in the 18-24 element of our service – those who are alcohol dependent or need substitute prescribing, blood borne virus testing, and/or hospital liaison, working directly with GPs and other healthcare services. They will also take the lead role for working with Ketamine users.
The funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has continued providing a Substance Misuse practitioner in the multi-agency Willow team, who support children under 18 who are missing, exploited and/or trafficked. These young people will often refuse to engage with the main service. As such, having a practitioner who sits directly within the Willow Team ensures that this is not a barrier to getting education, harm reduction, and structured treatment.
Challenges
Hampshire 24/7
Similar to last year, the most significant challenges we have faced this year have been:
- the sustained increase in referrals, and
- staff recruitment.
We have continued to find it difficult to recruit experienced substance misuse workers particularly in some areas of the county. Utilising our relationships with Inclusion, our job adverts are now sent out to a database of people who are job searching and have signed up to have email alerts. Taking advice from the Catch22 recruitment team we have also amended our adverts to make them more attractive to prospective employees. We have also changed the person specifications to encourage people with transferable skills to apply for roles within the team.
Over the last year, we also have seen a massive increase in referrals for young people who have problematic Ketamine use. Many of these young people are experiencing physical symptoms which include bladder pain, cystitis-type symptoms, weight loss, and depression. We have been fortunate to establish a relationship with a Urologist who has experience of working with Ketamine users, and who is willing to treat young people with bladder issues.
Inclusion22
One of the challenges this year had been that it was quite difficult to recruit someone with the relevant skills and experience needed for this role.
Only having two staff for the whole county is also challenging. We have to cap caseloads as staff are having to travel across large areas to see clients every week.
We continue to look for external funding streams with an aim to increasing staff numbers which would enable us to broaden our referral criteria.
“I must thank you for your time. It was awesome meeting with you and learning from you!”
Added value
Hampshire 24/7
This year we received a grant of £22,000 from the Connect4Communities programme. Funded by the Department of Work and Pensions, this grant looks to support vulnerable households facing significant rising living costs, who are needing support with necessities through the Household Support Fund. This included families with children, care leavers, and disabled people.
Through this funding we were able to support 108 families with:
- food vouchers,
- white goods, such as washing machines, fridges and cookers,
- essential utility bills, such as gas, water and electricity, and
- vouchers for school uniform, winter coats, and shoes.
Inclusion22
Inclusion22 received an additional grant this year of £11,00 from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight MH board, allowing us to provide an activity programme for children accessing the service.
With this funding we delivered the following activities for 25 young people:
- kayaking,
- abseiling,
- raft building,
- bush crafts,
- donutting,
- high ropes
- two theatre trips to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Shrek the Musical respectively,
- two restaurant visits,
- cinema vouchers, and
- a Christmas steam train experience.
“I liked seeing my worker every week. It helped me to be able to speak about what was happening at home, and I now feel safe. I liked that we did different things when we were talking.”
– Service user, aged 9
Working in partnership
Hampshire 24/7
We maintain our strongest working relationships with Inclusion and Parent Support Link who, with us, form the partnership in Hampshire.
Inclusion have a variety of specialist teams, and we have been able to increase our client offer by utilising these teams when and if they are needed. These include:
- harm reduction,
- alcohol,
- family recovery service,
- criminal justice, and
- no wrong door.
Inclusion also provide clinical support for clients who require an alcohol reduction or substitute prescribing.
Our working relationships with adult services, such as probation and adult mental health, have improved this year. However, there is more work we could do to facilitate stronger pathways.
Our relationships within education settings and children’s services are evident from our referrals, with both being the highest sources for referrals for children under the age of 18.
We have also continued to build on our relationship with the Willow Team by having a practitioner based within the service.
Our relationship with the secure children’s estate at Swanwick Lodge has continued to improve over the last year due to us providing case management supervision to the Nurse who is delivering health promotion sessions to the children residing there. She is able to refer children who require specialist treatment into the main service for intervention during their stay.
Over the last year, we also have seen a massive increase in referrals for young people who have problematic Ketamine use. Many of these young people are experiencing physical symptoms which include bladder pain, cystitis-type symptoms, weight loss, and depression. We have been fortunate to establish a relationship with a Urologist who has experience of working with Ketamine users, and who is willing to treat young people with bladder issues.
We have successfully referred a number of young people for detox at the Inclusion Dame Carol Black Unit in Fareham and had a number of young people access funding for rehabilitation.
Inclusion22
Inclusion and Parent Support Link are currently the only services who can refer to Inclusion22 due to our low staffing in this provision. We have spent time attending team meetings to advertise the provision to new and existing staff in the hope that we can increase referral numbers for the coming year.
Staff from the Inclusion service facilitated training, on behalf of Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP), on supporting children of substance misusing parents as they recognise the impact that parental substance use can have.
Over 300 staff from across Hampshire attended the 4 sessions we provided from April 2023 to March 2024.
One of the sessions was observed and evaluated by a member of the HSCP team, following which feedback was very positive.
Young person’s voice
We regularly invite a young person to sit on interview panels for new staff and ask them to come up with one or two questions of their own to ask the people they are interviewing. We find that they often give us a different insight into the people we are interviewing.
Hampshire247 and Inclusion22 would like to increase our service user feedback. To do this, we are going to utilise our monthly discharge spreadsheet and send out a bulk text to all clients who have been discharged in the previous month. Service Coordinators will also contact young people who have not completed feedback surveys as a way of capturing their views.
As part of the re-tender process for Hampshire County Council, we will be holding a focus group for 18-25s. This will ensure that their voices are heard as part of the process. Feedback from under 18s will be collected via a questionnaire.
Using a tool designed by the Senior Service Manager, we will keep a database of all young people who agree to be contacted in future to support with focus groups, feedback surveys, and interviews.
Future plans
Hampshire 24/7
Having a Nurse working in the team will allow us to increase our work with healthcare, GPs, and Urology and will give us a pathway for blood-borne virus testing.
Following the Connect4Communities funding, we appreciate the impact that relatively small funding grants can have on children, young people and families. We will continue to look for funding that can support these activities going forward,
We would like to expand our Ketamine offer and start a group work programme that will support young people before they need to access structured treatment. Our referral pathway to Urology teams will facilitate better treatment options and will allow the young people we work with to access specialist support with experienced teams.
Inclusion22
Following the success of our activity programmes, we will continue to search for funding opportunities that will facilitate these activities in the future. We know that the activity programme has allowed children to meet other children like them and the benefit that this brings to each and every one.
Our other plan is to look at external funding options that would support an extension of the team. Ideally, we would like to have a worker sitting in every children’s services team across the county. This would allow us to take direct referrals from these teams.
Statistics gained from Inclusion for the year April 2023 – March 2024 showed that, of the 1,021 adult clients they worked with, there were 889 children in total. Whilst not all of these live with parents, in some way they are likely to have been affected by their parent’s substance use. There is estimated to be around 5,000 children in Hampshire who live with a substance misusing parent. Even with an increased staff team, we would likely only be scratching the surface.
We will work with Inclusion to increase the number of referrals to Inclusion22 by attending team meetings and presenting a shortened version of our HSCP training.
“I have finished my university assignments and handed in my dissertation. My university is now trying to get it published in an international journal! Crazy to think how far I’ve come from when we first met. I have thought about your help frequently and am very grateful for the support you have given to me and many others.”
– Joe, service user
