WDP and Box Up Crime are offering young people in Redbridge who have experience of drug or alcohol issues the opportunity to get motivated and active in a fun and relaxed space.

Box Up Crime will enable young people who use the Capital Card® in Redbridge to use enjoy free gym passes and have a discounted membership in exchange for Capital Card points.

The Capital Card is an award-winning reward card scheme which empowers WDP’s service users. It rewards people for their engagement at their local service, through a simple earn-spend points system. They can earn points by attending appointments and then spend their points on positive activities in their local community, such as the cinema or gym.

Max Griffiths, Capital Card Manager at WDP, said: “We are delighted that Box Up Crime is joining the Capital Card Spend Partner family. The young people we work with in Redbridge will really benefit from these inspirational sessions and access to their leisure facilities, to help improve both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.”

Rob Harris, Operational Manager at Box Up Crime said: ‘This is an amazing opportunity for us at Box Up Crime to be involved in the great work of supporting people on the road to recovery. We strongly believe that working in partnership we can have a greater influence in the work we all do, so it is an honour for us to be part of the Capital Card family. We look forward to sharing many successful outcomes in the future.

If you live in Redbridge and would like to talk to someone about your own or someone else’s drug or alcohol use, please contact R3 (adult service) on 0300 303 4612 or info.R3@wdp.org.uk or Fusion (young people service) on 020 8708 7800 or info.fusion@wdp.org.uk for free and confidential support.

As part of its Recovery Month celebrations, WDP West Berkshire hosted an open day for its service users and community partners at its newly refurbished recovery hub.

WDP West Berkshire launched in April 2022 and provides a range of drug and alcohol treatment and support for adults and young people.

The event at our site on Station Road in Newbury was attended by Mayor of Newbury, Gary Norman, Councillor Steve Masters, and April Peberdy from West Berkshire Council (see pictured) amongst others.

Guests at the open day were able to take part in taster sessions and visit a ‘marketplace’ to showcase different elements of the service, such as: alcohol awareness, BBV testing, needle exchange, employment support, and information and training around Naloxone.

There was also a stall about WDP’s Capital Card scheme, which enables service users to earn points by engaging in treatment and then spend points on activities in their local community.

Tom Sackville, WDP’s Executive Director of Services said: “We were delighted to host this open day and provide an opportunity for our community partners to see the excellent treatment that is available and meet our team. Our refurbished service hub is a really positive welcoming environment for our staff, volunteers and most importantly for service users on their recovery journey.”

Our New Beginnings service in Cheshire West and Chester recently held a celebration event for its peer mentor graduates at the Storyhouse in Chester. Storyhouse is an award-winning library, theatre, cinema, and cultural centre, and is one of our Capital Card® spend partners.

The event was attended by the service’s peer mentors who graduated this summer, their friends and families, as well as those who will be starting the peer mentoring programme in September.

Other graduation attendees included: members of the New Beginnings team, WDP senior managers, staff from forfutures housing support service, Councillor Val Armstrong Cabinet Member – Adult Social Care and Public Health, and Director of Public Health Ian Ashworth and other local authority employees.

WDP Area Director, Dave Targett gave a speech about the value of peer mentoring within WDP services and our vision for the development of an independent peer-led service in Cheshire West and Chester.

Jane Murphy, Service Manager, New Beginnings said: “It was a very inspirational morning for everyone who attended. We were delighted to have our Peer Mentoring course delivered in Cheshire West and Chester and we are looking forward to our peer mentors joining us on their placements and supporting with the delivery of the next peer mentoring course. We also look forward to more graduation events in the coming years as our recovery community of peer mentors expands.”

Ian Ashworth, Director of Public Health, Cheshire West and Chester said: “I was honoured to have the opportunity to attend the WDP Peer Mentor Graduation Ceremony event at The Storyhouse, Chester on 23rd August. The peer mentoring programme is growing from strength to strength due to the commitment of the peer graduates, and it is amazing to see how their personal experience of addiction and recovery, with empathy and without judgement, provides an invaluable offer to those seeking treatment and support on their recovery journey.”

Some of the feedback from our amazing peer mentor graduates included:

• “I very much enjoyed the peer mentor course, not only because it was interesting and led to my gaining a qualification, but also because it offered support and structure at a very vulnerable time in my life. The lessons were always friendly and practical, and the friendships I developed with my fellow mentors were of huge benefit to my mental health.”
• It’s a life-changing experience that has helped me gain more insight into this line of work. I would highly recommend this course.”

About New Beginnings

WDP’s New Beginnings service delivers high-quality personalised care and treatment for adults and young people from sites in Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich. If you live in Cheshire West and Chester and would like to talk to someone about your or someone else’s drug or alcohol use, please contact us on 0300 303 4548 or cwac@wdp.org.uk. You can also visit our service page for more information and to register for support online.

We are delighted that our Pay and Reward project has been highly commended in the ‘Best reward or recognition initiative’ category at this year’s CIPD People Management Awards.

These prestigious awards showcase and celebrate the outstanding achievements and contributions made by people engagement initiatives and the teams across the UK who are making a real difference in their workplace.

Anna Whitton, CEO of WDP commented: “We are extremely pleased to have been highly commended in this hotly contested category! Our team really wanted to develop a meaningful, valuable and flexible suite of benefits and rewards for our people and to have our hard work recognised in this way makes us very proud.”

Read more about WDP’s range of benefits – including health and wellbeing initiatives, financial perks and support, and recognition and development opportunities – in our Benefits Package area.

We are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Performance Recovery Award at this year’s HSJ Awards, along with our partners in the Hepatitis C Drug Treatment Services (DTS) Provider Forum.

The HSJ Awards recognise the outstanding contributions made to healthcare across the UK and showcase these achievements on a national platform.

The Hepatitis C Drug Treatment Services (DTS) Provider Forum has been nominated for its ‘Hepatitis C Virus Screening in Drug Treatment Services’ initiative, which aims to eliminate Hepatitis C from UK drug and alcohol services by the end of 2023.

Membership of the Provider Forum includes a collection of the UK’s leading drug and alcohol service providers and The Hepatitis C Trust. The group’s members have been working together to implement a collaborative reporting and monitoring approach in Hepatitis C test and treat data.

Marlon Freeman, Hep C Coordinator at WDP said: “Raising awareness of Hepatitis C and the very real potential to eliminate it is key to delivering the ambitions of this project. We’re really proud of the partnership and what has been delivered so far. Being shortlisted for this award provides another important platform to promote this life-saving initiative.”

HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds; “On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Hepatitis C Drug Treatment Services (DTS) Provider Forum on being shortlisted as a finalist in the category of ‘Performance Recovery Award’. We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in November, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and continuously driving for better service.”

The full list of nominees for the 2022 HSJ awards can be found at awards.hsj.co.uk.

WDP welcomes the publication of a national adult drug and alcohol treatment commissioning quality standard by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). These new standards were one of the key recommendations of the second part of Dame Carol Black’s review of drugs and were agreed by the government and included in the recent drug strategy.

As a third sector provider of recovery treatment and support services and a member of the expert advisory group that helped shape this framework, we are grateful to have been involved in the consultation and to have had the opportunity to share our views and experience of the breadth of activities carried out by local commissioning teams. A recognition that an effective tendering process is just one part of the wider commissioning role is important.

The new quality standards highlight the importance of collaboration and co-production, values that are a vital part of everything we do as an organisation, and this was especially clear in how the expert advisory group was consulted with and worked together. The membership of the group also reflected critical elements of these standards, such as dynamic partnership working and having people with lived experience involved at every stage as being essential.

We are very encouraged that a great deal of consideration has been given to ensure that when looking at future commissioning, the right people are in the room and that they are supported to make the best possible decisions for local communities.

The aim of the drug strategy is to have accessible, high-quality, effective, person-centred alcohol and drug treatment and recovery systems throughout England, and we feel that these new standards provide a good framework to support this important work.

David Targett, Area Director at WDP – and a member of the expert advisory group – said: “Seeing the recommendations from the Dame Carol Black review appear in the drug strategy and now being followed through with the publication of these new quality standards for commissioning is promising and positive news. However, it is imperative that we continue working together as a sector to develop long-term quality, performance, financial and workforce strategies to strengthen, expand and embed excellent treatment and support for the people who need it.”

To read the commissioning quality standard: alcohol and drug treatment and recovery guidance and self-assessment tool, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioning-quality-standard-alcohol-and-drug-services

Liz Campbell, Area Director tells us about WDP’s attendance at the 2022 DDN Conference and shares feedback from our staff and service users who attended

On Thursday 23 June, we attended this year’s DDN Conference in Birmingham. The theme was ‘All Together Now’ as it was the first time that this conference was being held in person for over two years.

Our team included staff from across our WDP services and we were also joined by four Service User Representatives from Redbridge. Our stall had information about our services and the work we are currently involved in, such as our Hep C elimination project. There were lots of other stalls giving out information about all the interesting work they were doing too.

John Conner, Recovery Practitioner at our New Beginnings service in Cheshire West and Chester, said: “There was a really good energy and lots of choices and new inspirational projects available to complement each other. I particularly liked the service user input from other parts of the country.”

The conference was opened by Rosanna O’Connor from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) who gave an overview of Dame Carol Black’s independent review on drugs and the additional funding that is being given to the sector.

Then followed two brilliant presentations about some of the difficulties women and BAME service users have in accessing services and our Head of Integration, Rebecca Odedra gave a great presentation about our IPS Into Work service and how it helps service users find employment.

One of the afternoon sessions saw Ed Davy, the UK government’s drug Recovery Champion, talking about a united approach and that there isn’t one path to recovery.

Qas Hassan, Peer Support Worker at our partnership service ARCH (Addiction Recovery Community Hillingdon), said: “The guest speakers were a fantastic contribution to the conference, especially Rebecca for WDP’s IPS employment service and the national recovery champion, Ed Day. I learnt a great deal about the new funding for our services and what plans will be implemented to improve access to mental health and additional support for our clients in the community.”

Gary Gemmell, Team Leader from our Capital Card team, said: “The highlight of my day was listening to the presentation from Ed Day. He really has made a difference for our service users and staff, by helping with the implementation of the government’s new 10-year drug strategy (From Harm to Hope), combined with the Dame Carol Black report. It really does sound like the future of drug and alcohol services looks as though it is set to really improve, roll on the next ten years.”

The conference was a great opportunity to spend time with colleagues, peer mentors, and service users. I was particularly pleased to see the enthusiasm shown by the Service User Representatives from Redbridge who also attended and thought it was a brilliant event. They said:

• “We should do this more often, with more service users.”
• “I learnt a lot about what’s happening in recovery around the country.”
• “We want more tickets for service users at the next DDN [conference].”

One of our newest members of staff Ava Cooper, Employment Specialist at our IPS Into Work service, summed up the conference perfectly, by saying:

“Attending the DDN 2022 conference was a great experience. Being new to the sector, it was insightful to hear lived experience stories and how this results in engagement. Building on recovery capital really is the best way we can connect during recovery and work towards enriching people’s lives. This also shed light on the direction of the sector prioritising community-led practice that values peer support; overall looking at recovery beyond medication. The emphasis on holistic support, achieved by services working together to provide training and support, gave me a greater understanding of the pillars of recovery.”

To find out more about the DDN Conference 2022, read DDN’s latest issue here https://joom.ag/sXCd. The issue includes an overview of Rebecca Odedra’s IPS Into Work presentation on page 8 and a WDP team photo and quote from Rebecca on pages 18-19.

We are delighted that we have been shortlisted for our Pay and Reward project in the ‘Best reward or recognition initiative’ category at this year’s CIPD People Management Awards.

These prestigious awards showcase and celebrate the outstanding achievements and contributions made by HR and Learning and Development teams across the UK who are making a real difference in their workplace.

Our new and innovative employee benefits package launched in 2021 following an extensive consultation with our staff. It was really important to us to put in place new conditions and benefits that support a happy, healthy, and impactful workforce and this has also helped us to continue to make a significant and positive difference in the work we do.

As well as gathering feedback from our people, we undertook research and benchmarking work, in our sector and beyond. We pushed and challenged ourselves to consider what we could do differently to make a difference. We will be reviewing our offer every two years, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring our pay and reward offer continues to help support us to attract, retain and develop the very best people.

Some examples of our benefits include:

• Annual leave of 30 days, from start of employment, increasing to 33 days over time.
• Sick leave of 6 months full pay, then 6 months half pay, from start of employment.
• An additional day’s leave for the following important life events: birthday, getting married/civil partnership, moving house, and child’s first day of school.
• Access to confidential counselling and practical support via our Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to Perkbox rewards and benefits, where all WDP staff can enjoy a wide variety of discounts – from fitness and wellbeing providers such as Puregym or Boxx and retailers like Argos or Snow & Rock – as well as freebies from Café Nero or Greggs, and free courses from the Skills Network.
• Other support we offer includes leave for: IVF (both partners eligible), adoption, gender transition, dependents, miscarriage (both partners eligible), pet bereavement and domestic abuse.

Anna Whitton, CEO of WDP said: ‘Our team have worked incredibly hard to develop and implement this important project. Being shortlisted for this CIPD award really recognises the careful time and attention invested in developing a strong and diverse employment offer. We are really proud of it!’

Read more about the full range of benefits available – including health and wellbeing initiatives, financial perks and support, and recognition and development opportunities – in our Benefits Package area.

We are delighted to announce the launch of our newly refurbished Cobbold Road hub at our New Beginnings service in Brent. The refurbished site was unveiled to service users, local partners and stakeholders at today’s launch event where attendees also heard from MP for Brent Central, Dawn Butler.

The improvements made to the New Beginnings Cobbold Road hub have created an even more welcoming and positive environment for staff, volunteers and most importantly for service users on their recovery journey.

Some of the key improvements made to the hub are:

• Brand-new reception area to give service users a warm welcome when they enter the building
• Larger group room including a kitchen area for service users
• Soundproof pods for staff to conduct online assessments and keywork sessions
• Easily accessible needle exchange room
• Capital Card shop available at all times during opening hours, giving service users the opportunity to access essential items when needed.

Tom Sackville, WDP’s Executive Director of Services said: “We are delighted to launch our new and improved hub at Cobbold Road. The new site provides a welcoming environment that will encourage people to access the excellent treatment offer that is available from New Beginnings, delivered in partnership with our clinical leads CNWL and service user group B3. We appreciate all the support provided by our commissioners at Brent Council for making this possible.”

The Cobbold Road hub launch event also included networking and a ‘marketplace’ where stands were setup throughout the building including WDP’s IPS Into Work employment service, B3 Brent Service User Council and ELEV8 Young Person’s Service.

New Beginnings is delivered by WDP and CNWL and is funded by Brent Public Health. To find out more about our service, visit https://www.wdp.org.uk/brent

WDP and Gilead Sciences have formally partnered for a second time to support sector-wide efforts to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) in drug and alcohol services by the end of 2023.

As part of this renewed partnership in with Gilead, WDP has recruited a dedicated Hepatitis C Coordinator to help its services achieve this 2023 target.

WDP has over 2,500 service users in treatment across the Barts, South Thames, West London and Cheshire & Merseyside Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs). WDP’s Hepatitis C Coordinator will be liaising with these ODN teams to better understand local needs and challenges as part of initial project planning and also to ensure ongoing high-quality partnership work.

In addition to this, WDP’s Hepatitis C Coordinator will also be working in partnership with the Hepatitis C Trust (HCT) and other organisations to improve pathways and take-up of testing and HCV treatment.

WDP initially received a Gilead grant in December 2019 to help increase its HCV testing and treatment uptake, enhance its data recording, and to apply its award-winning Capital Card® to its HCV pathway. The addition of the Capital Card meant service users could earn points by engaging in HCV testing and treatment appointments and spend their points on positive activities and products in their local community. Alongside NHS and Gilead jointly-delivered training to WDP teams, these interventions delivered a 114% increase in BBV testing uptake in WDP’s adult community services between September-December 2020, compared to the same four-month period the previous year, despite lockdown and other COVID-related protections.

Yasmin Batliwala, Chair of WDP said: “We are extremely pleased to be continuing our partnership with Gilead Sciences on this important work. WDP is committed to eliminate hepatitis C in its drug and alcohol services by 2023 and although this is an ambitious target, we are confident that we have the right partners and people in place to help make this a reality.”

William McCully, Director, Patient Access to Care, Gilead Sciences said: “We are delighted to partner with WDP to deliver on the ambition to eliminate HCV in drug treatment services in England by the end of 2023 and look forward to supporting WDP’s Hep C Coordinator, the wider WDP team and the NHS to drive testing, diagnosis and linkage to care.”

Mark Gillyon-Powell, Head of Programme for HCV Elimination, NHS England says: “NHS England’s Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Elimination Programme is working towards a shared goal of eliminating hepatitis C as a major public health issue in England ahead of the World Health Organisation goal of 2030. We welcome this collaboration between two of our partners and recognise the important role it will play in driving forward hepatitis C elimination.”

Miriam Jassey, Southern Regional Manager, Hepatitis C Trust (HCT) said: “We are excited to work with the newly appointed WDP Hepatitis C Coordinator and look forward to further supporting the wider WDP team to increase HCV awareness, access to testing and referral to treatment through the lived experience of our peers. We are committed to working in partnership to ensure we leave no one behind as we work towards HCV elimination by the end of 2023.”