Eric Carlin’s Blog

I was invited to a preview of the key themes of the new Government English Drugs Strategy at the Home Office yesterday, Monday, 11^th February. This follows an extensive consultation period in which we actively participated, including providing opportunities for young people to contribute. The new Strategy is due to be launched on 27^th February. Separate strategies operate in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I was hoping in particular to hear some change in relation to prioritising prevention work and to making it effective.  It was good to hear about the new Public Service Agreement (PSA) which includes “a new focus on prevention and families”. However, it seems unlikely that we will see at last the large scale investment in research and development of evidence-based prevention which is necessary if we are at last going to make a major impact on reducing the numbers of young people who get into trouble with drugs. Overall funding for drugs is not going to increase. Also, unfortunately, alcohol and drugs are still to be dealt with separately, with the rather lame excuse being given by one presenter that this had to be the case because one was legal, the other illegal.

If we re-orientated our thinking to regard drugs prevention primarily as a Public Health issue, the legal status of the drugs wouldn’t matter as we could focus our energies primarily on developing and using instruments which would reduce misuse and harm to the individual and to communities.

We are and will be engaged in the implementation plans, particularly in relation to prevention and families. We need to get the messages out to the young people who don’t misuse drugs that they are the norm and that they can still be “cool”. It’s also clear that we need to help parents and carers re-discover their confidence in giving guidance and support to their children and that we need to back this up with properly resourced, well-trained teachers and youth services, including in the voluntary sector.

We also believe that it’s vital that we monitor and raise the standard and broaden the scope of drug prevention activities and that’s why Mentor UK is developing a Quality Mark for drug prevention which we hope to establish as an “industry” norm.

What was said at the Home Office

I heard the following - There will be 4 key areas, which I hope I’ve summarised accurately:

Supply and crime – led by Home Office: This will remain a major focus of the Strategy. In fact there will be more emphasis on disrupting the criminal market, including increasing asset seizures.

Prevention and families – DCSF lead: There will be more support for families, including families of drug users, extending family intervention partnerships and support for parenting. There will be more emphasis on providing support for young carers and targeted youth support.  There will also be improved specialist treatment for young drug users. The role of schools and drugs education will be strengthened and reviewed and in particular there will be an assessment of how schools can support vulnerable young people.

Treatment – Department of Health lead: There will be more emphasis on treatment and social re-integration with planning and delivery focussed on localities. Clinical Governance will be emphasised through NICE and treatment will be evidence-based. The new PSA will prioritise heroin and crack and drug users who cause the most harm to themselves and others. There will be renewed efforts to join up services in prisons and in the community.

Public information, communications and campaigns – Home Office lead: FRANK will continue to be prioritised. Communications will have two main objectives; to support the new PSA by reducing drug use and also reducing the public’s anxiety and fears about drug use. FRANK will do more work in schools and to support parents and will link with local community activities. There will be increased support to Drug Action Teams and local partnerships to publicise their activities. The “Tackling Drugs, Changing Lives” awards will continue to recognise achievements, as will National Drugs Week. There will be more coalitions and partnerships and a particular strand of work will include looking at how to publicise good role models for young people.