Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health

Councillors K Caan and R Ali, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport, have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item 

The Committee considered a Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health which indicated that the City Council is responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol recovery services for adults and young people, which forms part of a wider programme of activity to reduce drug and alcohol related harm. The current contract for adult drug and alcohol recovery services is due to end in November 2017. This provides an opportunity to review and reshape the services to ensure that they are fit for the future.

Coventry City Council has developed a potential future treatment model for November 2017 onwards, based on the needs of the Coventry population, evidence of what works and findings from engagement and consultation undertaken to date with service users, wider stakeholders and the general public.

The Briefing Note informed the Committee of the findings from work undertaken to date and sought comments and suggestions from the Committee for future drug and alcohol treatment services in Coventry.

The future drug and alcohol service model for Coventry is a key component of Coventry’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy and links to all three of the Priorities:-

•  Reducing health and wellbeing inequalities (the health and wellbeing gap) with a specific focus on building young people resilience and good economic growth for the City

•  Improving the health and wellbeing of individuals with multiple complex needs

•  Developing an integrated health and care system that provides the right help and support to enable people to live their lives well.

The Briefing Note outlined the following three recommendations in relation to future commissioning:-

•  To commission an Adult Drug and Alcohol Service that is recovery led; incorporating both prevention and treatment within a wider recovery system

•  To commission a family support along with service user advocacy within the wider recovery system

•  To commission young people’s substance misuse services as an integrated offer with wider young people’s early intervention services linked to the wider drug and alcohol recovery system

An appendix to the report provided a visual image of the proposed drug and alcohol recovery model/system and an outline of proposed system objectives and priority groups.

The Committee questioned the officer an aspects of the Briefing Note, including:-

•  How proactive the service is in reaching out to groups and communities

•  Needle recovery schemes and work undertaken by West Midlands Police in this regard

•  Residential rehabilitation and success rates of this compared to community rehabilitation

•  The impact that Licensing Policies can have on communities and work undertaken by Trading Standards regarding illegal sales and practices

•  Partnership working

The Committee noted that the new contract will be an outcomes based contract, with targets to achieve, that will be evaluated against other Local Authorities and reviewed every quarter.

 RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:-

(1)  Note the proposed future treatment model and supporting documentation

(2)  Endorse the proposed approach to drug and alcohol treatment in Coventry

(3)  Request that officers seek an update from West Midlands Police on the work being done to address drug use in the City

(4)  Request that officers write to the Government on behalf of the Committee asking that the promotion of public health be included as one of the Licensing Objectives

(5)  Request that a report summarising services up to 2017 be submitted to a future meeting to enable the Committee to monitor the impact of the new services.