Overview
Drugs and alcohol misuse are major causes of societal harm, leading to crime, family breakdown and poverty. They also generate great economic costs. Government figures show that class A drug use alone creates £15.4 billion in crime and health costs annually. In order to tackle substance misuse, it is vital that there is integrated support for people to choose recovery as an achievable way out of dependency.
In December 2010, the government launched its new drug strategy, Reducing Demand, Restricting Supply, Building Recovery: Supporting People to Live a Drug-Free Life. The strategy set out a vision for supporting recovery from dependence, promoting social re-integration and providing a holistic approach by addressing employment, housing and offending. It focuses on developing partnerships between national, local, voluntary and community organisations. This builds on the proposals of the Healthy Lives, Healthy People White Paper, published in November 2010, which advocates early intervention, localism and a multi-agency approach.
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill will strengthen powers in tackling drug and alcohol related crime, by introducing Police and Crime Commissioners. There is also reform for tackling dependence among offenders, focusing on diverting offenders away from prison and into treatment. This is part of the government’s wider criminal justice reform and ‘rehabilitation revolution’ to break the cycle of re-offending.
Furthermore, the National Treatment Agency is developing a new recovery-oriented framework, Building Recovery in Communities, with the Department of Health. The transition from a ‘treatment system’ to a ‘recovery system’ will be a key focus for Public Health England, a new core public health organisation that will be established in April 2012.
Funding for substance misuse services is being fundamentally reformed. Budgets will be distributed by local authorities, and payments by results services are being piloted. Furthermore, the Home Office is implementing a new £4 million ‘Choices’ grant available for organisations tackling substance misuse and related offending amongst vulnerable groups of young people.
Agenda
This forum comes at a time of great change for drug and alcohol services. The forum will bring together key stakeholders, and generate discussion on the government’s strategy for developing a recovery-focused system. Issues discussed will include best-practice for personalising services, social re-integration and working in partnership with national, local, voluntary and community organisations to provide services flexible to local needs.
You can view the full programme on the website.
Audience
The audience will include community safety teams, police, drug and alcohol action teams, youth offending teams, rehabilitation workers, mental health services, social workers, education authorities, licensing teams, social inclusion officers, community cohesion officers, local criminal justice boards, prison/probation services and PCTs.
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