Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, which sought approval to receive the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant.

The City Council was successfully awarded a grant of up to £640,361 to support rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping to engage with and access drug and alcohol treatment in January 2022, which was to fund activity up to March 2023.  Following confirmation of this funding, the Council were asked to revise their bid for 2022/23 and to bid for funding for 2023/24.  As a result of this, the Council had now been awarded £1,228,092 from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - Department of Health and Social Care (“OHID”) for the period April 2022 to March 2024.  It was expected that there may be one further round of bidding for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant (RSDATG) to provide funds in 2024/25.

The Council’s constitution required formal Cabinet approval prior to agreeing to receive external grants in excess of £500,000.  Where time does not allow this to happen approval could be sought by the relevant Director in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member and Scrutiny Chair, with a requirement to then report retrospectively to Cabinet.  As time was not available to report in advance of signature for this grant, approval was gained by the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, in consultation with Councillor Caan (Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport), Councillor Duggins (Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership) on behalf of Councillor Welsh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) and Councillor N Akhtar (Chair, Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee); with agreement for a retrospective report to Cabinet.

The purpose of the grant was threefold:

·  to support people experiencing, or at risk of, rough sleeping to access and engage in drug and alcohol treatment.

·  to ensure that the engagement that people have had with drug and alcohol treatment services whilst rough sleeping or in emergency or temporary accommodation is maintained as they move into longer term accommodation.

·  to build resilience and capacity in local drug and alcohol treatment systems to continue to meet the needs of this population in future years.

Following the initial invitation to submit proposals for the Rough Sleeper Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant scheme, Public Health and Housing teams identified the need to create a number of dedicated outreach roles to support this population to engage in treatment, including:

·  a specialist drug and alcohol outreach worker within the Council Rough Sleeper Outreach team to engage with people currently ‘bedding down’ into treatment services.

·  a team of outreach workers within Change, Grow, Live (CGL Coventry - the Council’s commissioned drug and alcohol treatment service) to engage with people in temporary accommodation and at risk of rough sleeping.

·  a team of allied specialist roles including a physical healthcare nurse, a Non-Medical Prescriber and an occupational therapist to support people to engage in treatment. These roles will predominantly deliver services at times and places which meet the specific needs of people rough sleeping in order to maximise engagement.

The original bid was submitted in June 2021 and totalled spend of up to £640,361 over a 21-month period to March 2023.  However, confirmation of the successful bid was not received until December 2021, which created a delay in starting the project. This delay, coupled with recruitment challenges, which were seen nationwide, resulted in an underspend for 2021/22.

In May 2022, OHID requested revised bids be submitted for the period July 2022 to March 2023 and to extend the scheme to March 2024 to bring the different phases of the grant in line.

On 13^th October 2022, OHID announced Coventry’s second bid had been approved.  A formal grant award was subsequently received on 13^th October 2022.  This grant award was for the period April 2022 to March 2024 and was for the sum of £1,228,092.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1.  Note the approval to retrospectively accept the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant in the sum of £1.228.092 from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities for the period April 2022 to March 2024.

2.  Authorise the Council to bid and accept further grant monies from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities for Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment in the maximum sum of £2,499,000 for the period 2024 – 2025.

3.  Delegate authority to the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, following consultation with the Chief Legal Officer and the Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport to undertake the necessary due diligence, negotiate terms and conditions of any funding agreement with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and enter into the necessary agreements to bring into legal effect the recommendation set out in 2. above.