The Government has announced that drug treatment services in England are to receive an extra £80 million as part of a larger investment to cut crime. Following the announcement of the £148 million package, the NHS APA supports the move that will take a system-wide approach to drug-related harm or the harms caused by drugs.
It represents the largest increase in drug treatment funding for 15 years and mirrors the NHS APA’s absolute commitment to reduce drug-related deaths and substance misuse.
We wholeheartedly welcome the multimillion-pound package to cut drug-related crimes, which delivers more money for drug treatment and recovery to help cut drug-related deaths and the cycle of substance misuse.
The increase in drug treatment funding will help provide the lifesaving overdose medicine and will help end the postcode lottery for inpatient treatment so that people from across the country can come off drug and alcohol dependency safely.
It represents the largest increase in drug treatment funding for 15 years and mirrors the NHS APA’s absolute commitment to reduce drug-related deaths and substance misuse.
However, while as an alliance we believe this is a step in the right direction, the allocation for one year remains short sighted. We urge for further significant investment to be embedded into the three-year spending review to bring about the genuine transformative step changes which substance misuse services so desperately need.
This announcement follows the first part of the Dame Carol Black independent review of drugs, in which she stressed the importance of treatment and how it had been decimated by funding, resulting in a loss of skills, expertise and capacity from this sector. We hope to see the second part of the report published as soon as possible this year.
Jon Shorrock, Inpatient Network Chair, commented on what this means for NHS Inpatient Units: “We are pleased to hear the announcement that an additional £80m of funding for one year is to be allocated from central government to provide support for drug treatment.
“The work undertaken by the NHS APA and others has been heard and the need to provide additional funding and placements for inpatient detox which has decreased significantly over the last 10 years."
“It seems that the work undertaken by the NHS APA and others has been heard and the need to provide additional funding and placements for inpatient detox which has decreased significantly over the last 10 years.
“The NHS APA and its sub-group, the NHS Inpatient Detox Network, will be considering how the proposed regional funding model might be effectively implemented and has already started conversations with the English Substance Use Commissioners Group to progress this approach.
"This funding has the potential to accelerate the inpatient detox regional commissioning model and we look forward to further detail and clarification from DHSC and PHE on how this might be progressed.
“Although this is largely positive news, we are disappointed that the funding does not include alcohol, which accounts for significant numbers of inpatient detox admissions. We will therefore be campaigning for more funding in this area.”