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Bookshelf
Recommended reading – from the drug and alcohol sector …
THE OUTRUN
by Amy Liptrot , published by Canongate . ISBN : 9781782115489 , £ 14.99 Review by Mark Reid .
The dingy confinements of Amy Liptrot ’ s addiction contrast utterly with the irenic spaces of her recovery . The Outrun refers to the furthest-flung coastline of the family sheep farm on Orkney , where she grew up and where she returns . Once oblivious to its beauty , Amy , like most teenagers , wherever they are , wanted out – to London – only to find no amount of big city bright lights can match the natural luminosity of the islands . Few alcoholics and addicts have anything like as much recovery capital to revert to , as Amy does , 800 miles north . Being fortunate does not prevent addiction .
Of course , when Amy first lived in ‘ fantasy ’ London she loved being the ‘ wild girl ’ spending ‘ enchanted summer days in the park with beautiful people ’ and then ‘ Soho nightclubs I ’ d read about in magazines ’. But it ’ s unsustainable . Soon Amy is making excuses to leave friends in bars ‘ to drink faster , alone ’. Jobs are lost , as are places to live .
Looking for another new flat , ‘ I mumbled my story , they chose someone else ’. So Amy finds a small room in a Victorian terrace in Clapton . ‘ I saw the sash window next to the bed , I knew I ’ d be able to drink and smoke freely there . I moved in ’.
Amy ’ s recovery is indebted to Alcoholics Anonymous . She accepts there can never be a first drink . She thrives in the trust and bond of being ‘ in church halls with misfits drinking tea from chipped mugs , listening to tales of people shitting the bed , laughing our heads off ’. Amy strives to embrace the 12-step programme : ‘ I need to do more than just not drink ’.
Amy Liptrot ‘ s coming home radiates how ‘ recovery is making use of something once thought worthless ’
Amy does a lot more than just not drink . When The Outrun came out in paperback , the publisher quite rightly pitched it as ‘ a nature memoir ’, a very fashionable genre . Amy recaptures , and this time truly cherishes , ‘ childhood memories of chasing oystercatcher chicks , feeling their soft , hotly beating bodies in our hands , before letting them go ’. It ’ s an idyllic setting for recovery . Once so impatient to leave , Amy Liptrot ‘ s coming home radiates how ‘ recovery is making use of something once thought worthless ’.
Mark Reid is peer worker at Path To Recovery ( P2R ), Bedfordshire
LegaL eye
Joanna Sharr of Ridouts answers your legal questions
' As part of the data monitoring process for our CQC inspection we provided detail of commissioners , local authorities , and other organisations making referrals to our service . Since we did this our personal relationship with a senior individual in one of these organisations has gone sour , and we believe this has adversely affected our rating . How can we challenge this , while avoiding a public argument with the individual involved ?'
JOANNA ANSWERS : The Provider Information Return (‘ PIR ’) is the information submitted by providers to CQC before CQC ’ s inspections and is viewed by CQC as an important part of the inspection process . The information provided by services as part of the PIR is used by CQC to help plan inspections and will be considered alongside all other sources of evidence to develop CQC ’ s inspection report .
Whilst negative comments can adversely affect inspection reports , CQC should not accept such comments and criticisms at face value without seeking to corroborate such evidence before it makes a judgement about a service . Judgements and ratings made by CQC in inspection reports should also be proportionate to the evidence before it and CQC should follow its own guidance in this respect . It is our firm ’ s experience that CQC can fail to follow its own policies and guidance , which makes it all the more important for providers to challenge CQC ’ s draft inspection reports through the factual accuracy process .
It would be perfectly reasonable for a provider to challenge comments made by a third party if those comments were unreasonable or were not supported by evidence ; both CQC and the individual in question should be accountable for statements that are used to form judgements . The provider could challenge the evidence by requesting copies of the inspection notes , by checking that that the comments are backed up by other evidence in the draft report , or by assessing whether the comments could be countered by other evidence . The provider has five days from publication of the CQC report to seek a ratings review . CQC states that the only grounds for requesting a review are that the inspector did not follow the process for making and aggregating ratings decisions ; the review does not offer providers a further forum to challenge the facts or judgements .
In light of the service ’ s concerns about the deteriorating relationship with one of its commissioners , it would be advisable for the service to focus on maintaining and developing its relationships with its commissioning bodies and third party stakeholders . Ways that relationships with commissioners could be fostered include , for example , holding an open day to address any concerns that commissioners may have or by writing to stakeholders to seek their views . Not only would this encourage an open dialogue but it could also be used as evidence at CQC ’ s next inspection that the service was driving improvement by seeking feedback . We recommend that this service is prepared for the next inspection by addressing any concerns that CQC made in its last reporting , and ensure that it is compliant in all respects . We would encourage all services to challenge CQC ’ s findings through the factual accuracy process if CQC ’ s draft inspection reports do not stand up to scrutiny .
Joanna Sharr is a solicitor at Ridouts LLP . Visit www . ridout-law . com
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