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Drug and alcohol services
01/04/2009
Reforms to the delivery of drug and alcohol treatment will ensure services are better focused on local need and achieving results, Fergus Ewing said today.
The Minister for Community Safety was responding to last week's report by the Auditor General for Scotland, who he had asked to examine the expenditure on, commissioning and delivery of services.
Mr Ewing outlined to MSPs the Scottish Government's work with community planning partners, to ensure services more effectively tackle substance misuse to help individuals recover.
He also announced plans for a national event on April 20th, bringing together local and national policy-makers, service providers and the third sector, where the reforms will be announced and discussed.
"The Auditor General's report lays bare the immense challenge which Scotland faces in tackling drug and alcohol misuse," Mr Ewing said.
"When we came into government, we were determined to get to grips not only with a drugs problem already well-entrenched in Scotland, but also with a growing challenge around alcohol misuse."
Mr Ewing said that an imbalance in investment in drug and alcohol treatment, identified in the Auditor-General's report for the year 2007-08, had already been corrected for the subsequent three years, with a 229 per cent rise in spending to tackle alcohol misuse up to 2010-11.
The Scottish Government will also introduce for the first time a requirement for the NHS to reduce waiting times for drugs services.
With record investment now in place, the Scottish Government and COSLA will respond to the proposals of an expert Delivery Reform Group, set-up last year, to improve how services are delivered.
"We will be announcing with COSLA later this month a new framework for local action on alcohol and drugs, replacing the current model of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams," Mr Ewing told MSPs.
"This will directly address a range of problems identified by a 2007 stocktake of ADATs and by the Auditor-General's report.
"The roles and responsibilities of key public bodies will be clarified and confirmed. Local partners and partnerships will have clear lines of accountability to the Scottish Government, and to each other.
"New local partnerships will be remitted to develop local strategies for tackling drugs and alcohol misuse based on: a robust assessment of needs in their area; a transparent, evidence-based process for agreeing how funds for tackling alcohol and drugs misuse should be deployed; and a clear focus on the outcomes which that investment is achieving for their communities.
"Local strategies will need to cover approaches to cross-cutting issues, such as children affected by parental substance misuse, where integrated working and effective communication is essential. They will also outline action to help families and better inform parents.
"Effective local partnerships are critical to addressing the concerns raised by Audit Scotland, over the variability in the range and accessibility of alcohol and drug services across the country.
"The Scottish Government also has a critical role to play in ensuring that appropriate and effective services are delivered in every part of Scotland to those who need them, when they need them.
"As part of that, we are recruiting a number of national co-ordinators, to help local partners and partnerships to meet the challenges presented by the new framework and the Auditor-General's recommendations."
COSLA Health & Wellbeing spokesperson Cllr Ronnie McColl said: "I welcome the increased focus on measures to combat the effect of drugs and alcohol misuse.
"The Minister has highlighted the issues which impact in some way on everyone in Scotland. Drugs and alcohol blight too many lives in Scotland and now is the time for renewed action.
"Communities across Scotland are battle-scarred from the effects of drug and alcohol misuse and it cannot be allowed to go on.
"My colleagues in COSLA with responsibility for children and young people and community safety, are equally committed to working to deal with the problems.
"Through Community Planning Partnerships, local authorities, together with NHS and voluntary sector partners, play the key role in the planning and delivery of services to all those affected. We are all fully aware of the scale of the task in hand and are prepared for the challenge."
The national drugs strategy, 'The Road to Recovery: a New Approach to Tackling Scotland's Drug Problem' was launched in May 2008, and endorsed by Parliament the following month.
On March 2, the Scottish Government published 'Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action'.
Around £94 million is being invested in drug treatment services over three years, representing a 14 per cent increase in funding by 2010-11. A total of £120 million will be spent on alcohol treatment over the same period, including £85 million of new money - a rise of 229 per cent.
Mr Ewing wrote to the Auditor General for Scotland in December 2007 asking that Audit Scotland investigate the scale and effectiveness of expenditure on treatment services and other interventions. The resulting report was published last week.
A Delivery Reform Group, formed by members of the key advisory committees was asked by Ministers to propose a new delivery framework for action on alcohol and drugs.
The Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities will announce their plans in response to the DRG, also taking account of the Audit Scotland report, on Monday, April 20. This will coincide with a national gathering in Edinburgh of representatives from the NHS, local government, voluntary groups and all political parties.