Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Wiltshire Public Health of the Substance Use Grantsand the work they support in Wiltshire including how grant funding has been allocated to date and plans for future grant arrangements.

The Chairman welcomed Kelly Fry (Principal - Building Resilience) and Lizzie Shea (Projects Officer - Substance Misuse) from the Public Health team who were in attendance to give an overview of how Substance Use Grants were being allocated to support people in Wiltshire.  The Chairman highlighted that the Committee last received an update in late 2022 and would welcome the opportunity to find out how the different initiatives were progressing.

Summarising the more detailed presentation included in the agenda pack, the following was highlighted:

Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant

·            There were three key areas – ‘capacity’ with the numbers of adults in structured treatment – the revised 3 year ambitions as for this to be 1861 adults, ‘continuity of care’ which is the % of prison leavers needing support with the ambition to have 60% accessing community treatment within 3 weeks of release and ‘residential rehabilitation’ – these numbers were increasing and this was based on local demand to be covered by the funding available;

·            The 2024-25 grant allocation was £633,699 (up from £358,692 in 2023/24) and this would be used to grow the workforce, additional drug costs, staff and peer mentoring training and development, regional coordination of the Inpatient Detoxification grant and stock for needle dispensing.  The grant would allow the Council to continue the great intervention work;

·            The Priority areas for 2024-25 include increasing the recovery support offer and reducing drug and alcohol related deaths through the monitoring and review implementation of the new recovery support element of the Connect service, the monitoring and review of the Wiltshire HOPE project, the recruitment of 2 FTE post lived experience posts and increased clinical interventions; and

·            The next steps were to await sign off of the supplementary plans for year 3, recruitment to commence new posts and consider succession planning beyond April 2025 when the current 3 year grant funding would end.

The Committee asked questions about what would happen after April 2025 if the grant was not renewed, the anticipated growing levels of need for the service, the risk of synthetic opioids coming into the country, if there was support for drivers that are pulled over and found to positive for drugs, what early preventative work there was in place to prevent the move from soft to hard drugs and heavy drinking to alcoholism, the reasons for the higher grant allocation for 2024-25 and what the grant had enabled the service to do differently/more innovatively.

Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant (RSDATG)

·            The total number of unique individuals engaged with the RSDATG service as at April 2023 identified as in the at risk cohort was 167 of which 25 were rough sleeping.  During quarter 3 2023-24 the number engaged was 119 of which 15 were routh sleeping.  The number of treatment exits from the service for quarter 2 was 26 with 7 of those routh sleeping.  This cohort was challenging to work with;

·            Two case studies highlighted positive outcomes;

·            The indicative 2024-25 grant allocation was £568,770 (£841,363 was previously allocated over 2 years – 2022-24) and this would be utilised to grow the workforce, inpatient detox/rehabilitation, volunteer posts, staff training and venue hire; and

·            The next steps were to await sign off of the 2024-25 budget plan, monitor grant activity and consider succession planning beyond April 2025 when the current 3 year grant funding would end.

The Committee asked questions about what work there was to engage those who don’t appear to want to engage in support, if those who are known to be ‘sofa surfing’ were included in the figures identified as at ‘at risk’, if overall numbers of engagement were lower due to Wiltshire’s rural profile, if the team felt that the cooperation from the Police in relation to rough sleepers was as good as it could be, and if the number of rough sleepers with a connection to the military was known.

Inpatient Detoxification Grant (IPD)

·            This grant had been in place since 2022 and is due to end in March 2025.  The 2023-24 and 2024-25 grant allocation was £40,632 and at the end of quarter 3 23-24 46% of the allocation had been used with the good working relationships that had been established with the Unit in Fareham.  Going ahead into 2024-25 they would continue to work with the Connect Service to utilise the IPD bed spaces.

Individual Placement Support Grant (IPS)

This grant of £157,805 would begin from April 2024 for two years and the aims were to support people into paid, mainstream jobs, short term training, volunteering and work placements.

The Chairman asked a question about the support for the boating and traveller communities, and it was highlighted that the Public Health Team had carried out a survey with the boater community, the results of which could be shared at a future Committee meeting.

Resolved: That the Select Committee

1.          Notes the overview of the work undertaken which has been funded by the Substance Use Grants.

2.          Requests an opportunity to view the action and/or succession plan before the end of the grant period in early 2025. 

3.          Requests information on the Wiltshire Hope project, to be circulated by email.