Local authorities get extra £421m to fund drug and alcohol addiction treatment
The Department of Health and Social Care are to provide an extra £421m in funding to 151 local authorities across England to help with drug and alcohol treatment programmes.
When announcing their ten-year drug strategy in 2021, the Government stated an aim to ‘improve access to treatment and increase the capacity of services, helping to reverse the upward trend in drug use and level up by tackling this major driver of crime’.
The new funding, which will run through to 2025, comes on to of the initial £780m investment in the project and will help create over 50,000 high-quality places in drug and alcohol treatment, the Government claim.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: ‘This investment in treatment and recovery services is crucial to provide people with high-quality support, with services such expanding access to life-saving overdose medicines and outreach to young people at risk of drug misuse already helping to reduce harm and improve recovery.
‘This funding will help us build a much improved treatment and recovery service which will continue to save lives, improve the health and wellbeing of people across the country, and reduce pressure on the NHS by diverting people from addiction into recovery.’
Tim Young, Chief Executive of The Alcohol & Drug Service (ADS), said: ‘We welcome today’s announcement as, without funding the ambitions set out in the National Drug Strategy would remain just words on a page. So, whilst there are no quick or easy fixes for systemic problems such as substance misuse, this presents an opportunity to turn those ambitions into reality and, provide hope for individuals, families and communities.’
The funding will be allocated to areas of greatest need, based on the rate of drug deaths, deprivation, opiate and crack cocaine prevalence and crime.
Last year the Scottish Government announced more than £25m of funding for 77 projects working with people affected by drug use.
Image: wyron
