Drug addicts left without help after ‘severe and damaging’ cuts to services One in five local authorities in England has cut drug treatment service budgets by more than half since 2015/16, a new report has found

Drug treatment services in England have been cut so much that some areas have almost no coverage at all, a new report seen by i reveals.

One in five local authorities has cut budgets by more than half since 2015/16, the report found, and the biggest cuts have been disproportionately concentrated in areas with high rates of drug-related deaths.

Adult drug misuse budgets in England have been cut more severely than other public health grant budgets, with councils reducing spend by an average of 27 per cent over the last four years.

Wandsworth Council has reduced its budget by 98 per cent, from £325,000 in 2015/16 to £6,000 this year, according to data used for the report. In Liverpool, funding has plummeted by 72 per cent, from £12.8m in 2015/16 to £3.6m this year. Funding in Bradford has fallen from £8.7m to £2.8m – a 68 per cent drop.

Funding drop

Wandsworth and Liverpool councils said it was misleading to look solely at spending on drug treatment services. They said their combined budgets for drug and alcohol treatment services had remained stable over the last four years “ensuring the resources are there so that our vulnerable residents can access the treatment services they need”.

The report, Towards Sustainable Drug Treatment Services, commissioned by Camurus, a Swedish biotech company, illustrates the scale of cuts to drug treatment services and the human cost. The rate of drug-related deaths in England and Wales is among the highest in Europe – 70 drug deaths per 1 million people aged 15-64. This is over three times the EU average of 21.8 deaths per million.

Filling the gaps The Well is a community support group for people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction through therapy, counselling, peer mentoring, employment training and social activities in the North West. It operates in Barrow, Morecambe, Lancaster, Kendal and Fleetwood. According to the ONS the North West had the second highest number of deaths due to drug misuse behind the North East in 2017, with 64.7 per million. David and Kerrie Higham run The Well. Both have been through recovery and see the scale an impact of cuts – David is an ex-offender and former drug addict. He believes there is a direct correlation between the scale of the cuts and the rising number of drug-related deaths. Mr Higham told i: “People are not getting the opportunity to get well like there was 10 years ago in terms of rehab, detox programmes, no psycho-social support for these guys. So we’re seeing a conveyor belt of people coming back into these services because there’s no therapeutic intervention. “Look, people are dying on the streets and it’s not your stereotype junkie – this can touch everyone. There’s no social or class boundaries when it comes to drug addictions and the level of cuts has gone beyond what health services can cope with.” Blackpool in Lancashire, which is next to Fleetwood and a few miles from Morecambe, has the highest number of deaths related to heroin or morphine in the country with 14 deaths per 100,000 in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.9. The ONS says that the majority of drug misuse deaths are due to accidental overdoses. It is suggested seaside towns have a particular high number of heroin or methadone deaths because of their high levels of deprivation.

Local officials are increasingly concerned that planned reforms to the ring-fenced Public Health Grant will mean drug treatment services in England ceases to exist, as they are not a statutory service, leaving users without any help at a time when drug-related deaths are at a record high.

Over half of Public Health directors surveyed for the report believe that the removal of the ring-fenced public health grant will lead to even less funding for substance misuse services in future. Over a third believe they will be unable to keep up with demand for substance misuse services in the coming year, and over half are concerned that cuts will have negative consequences for the quality of treatment and its outcomes.

“Without urgent change, we risk irreparably damaging a system that provides a crucial pathway to recovery, and is an integral aspect of a healthy society. The time for action is now,” the report concludes.

‘Severe’ cuts

It was launched on Tuesday to coincide with a Westminster Hall debate on drug treatment services. Jeff Smith, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform who sponsored the debate, told i: “As the report shows, cuts to drug treatment services have been severe and highly damaging. The government’s failure to adequately fund drug treatment services hits some of the most vulnerable in our society.

“As well as preventing local authorities from delivering core services for the people who need it most, these cuts limit the ability to innovate, to offer prevention measures for those who might be susceptible to drug misuse, or to reach under-represented groups and communities who currently struggle to access services.”

A Government spokesperson said: “The trend in overall drug use in this country is relatively flat compared with a decade ago, with more adults leaving treatment successfully. Every drug related death is an avoidable tragedy and the Home Office is conducting a major independent review of drug misuse to help find solutions about what can be done to reduce these harms.”

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In Durham, the Police and Crime Commissioner has taken an increasing role in the delivery of drug treatment services because the local authority is simply not able able to fund them. Ron Hogg, the Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for Durham, has been vocal in the drug policy debate for a number of years and is a leading voice in opposition to current government policy.

“I am fearful that I will face the triple-whammy of a reduction in police funding, a further reduction due to changes in the funding formula, and the consequences of a decrease in public health funding,” he told i. “Public Health cuts will affect the safeguarding of young people and if drug and alcohol services are reduced, the police will have to deal with an even greater problem of rising crime.”