Housing support service in South Ayrshire for those with addiction issues is placed in the spotlight by Care Inspectorate

The housing support service provides assistance to adults affected by the misuse of drugs, alcohol, and other substances
-Credit: (Image: Hull Daily Mail)


A housing support service that helps adults in Ayrshire with addiction issues has been given a favourable report after an unannounced inspection.

We Are With You South Ayrshire, Housing Support Service, based in Killoch Place, Ayr, was graded as ‘very good’ across three quality indicators and ‘good’ across one other.

The gradings come from the Care Inspectorate following an unannounced inspection in September with the findings now made public.

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Among the key findings the Care Inspectorate said people were “fully involved” in setting their own goals. And clients were “encouraged” to provide feedback and were “meaningfully involved” in service development and improvement.

In addition, staff managed their diaries to ”meet the needs and availability” of those they supported.

The plus points continued and the team “worked well” to ensure the service was “as accessible as possible” to people.

And people were “very positive” about the support they received from We Are With You South Ayrshire.

The care scrutiny body also assessed the service’s self-evaluation of key areas and found that the service was not yet undertaking self-evaluation.

As a result inspectors discussed the benefits of self evaluation and how this approach ‘should be adopted’ to support improvement in the service.

We Are with You South Ayrshire is a housing support service that provides assistance to adults affected by the misuse of drugs, alcohol, and other substances.

The service is provided by We Are with You, a national UK charity and they support people who live across the local authority area- in both urban and rural locations.

An extract from the report said: “We found significant strengths in aspects of the care provided and how these supported positive outcomes for people.

“During the inspection we were able to see that people had or were able to access health assessments. Referrals were made when required to relevant health professions in order to meet peoples health and wellbeing needs. The service had nurses who provided support to people both at the service base and in the community.”

The report continues: “Staff had good relationships with people where they are able to promote and encourage clients to consider positive life choices that they may not have considered before. Staff were responsive to peoples health and wellbeing needs. Each client was allocated a specific worker who was fully informed of their circumstances and needs. The worker was therefore able to utilise relevant tools to support and signpost the client to relevant agencies where appropriate.”

In the quality indicators relating to supporting people’s wellbeing, leadership and staff team, these were all graded ‘very good,’ while planned care and support was graded ‘good.’

The report adds: “The service also provided support to family members and key individuals of people with substance misuse issues. This was done through Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) support groups. This meant that families were able to contribute to people’s recovery as well as accessing support themselves.

“One family member told us they were now able to have a better relationship with their loved one since having support from We Are With You.”