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ITEM EX12

EXECUTIVE - 18 MAY 2004

Scrutiny Review of Drugs and Alcohol Misuse: "Not Just A Quick Fix"

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

Introduction

  1. In September 2003 the Community Safety Scrutiny Committee completed a Review into the activities of the Council and its partners in relation to the provision of drug and alcohol information and services for the residents of Oxfordshire. The Review Group interviewed a number of people active in this area of work. These included representatives from the School Development Service (SDS), the Youth Service, Drug & Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), and the voluntary sector. Members of the Review Group also visited other authorities to explore how they were tackling this agenda. The Review was led by four County Councillors over a period of a year and represented an independent, evidence-based set of findings and recommendations.

  2. The Executive received the Review report on 14 October 2003 and agreed the generality of its recommendations, in the form set out in Annex 1 (download as .doc file). This report gives a brief outline of progress as requested by the Executive.

  3. The importance of this work has also been picked up in the County Council’s 10/3 Priorities which include the objective to ‘improve services for young people in order to prevent them being drawn into or repeating criminal or drug related activity’. The issues are also reflected in the Learning & Culture Medium Term Plan (Annex 2) (download as .doc file). This includes the development of a wide ranging drug and alcohol strategy for the Learning & Culture Directorate which could form the basis of a corporate strategy, including additions from Social & Health Care and Community Safety.

  4. To support these objectives, the Council have agreed to pick up the cost of continuation of the Standards Fund 204 for Drug Prevention, which ceased on 1 April 2004. This will allow for the continuation of posts currently paid from that source and some minor developments.

    5. Oxfordshire DAAT

  5. All this work within the County Council has to be seen in the context of the Oxfordshire Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) whose role is to implement and co-ordinate the Government’s National Drugs Strategy at county level. The DAAT brings together the County Council, District Councils, Thames Valley Police, National Probation Service and a range of Health Trusts, the Youth Offending Service and voluntary organisations. Its work is closely monitored by the Government Office of the South East to whom it is accountable in relation to its allocation of funding and the management of its performance.

  6. Major organisational changes have taken place within the DAAT, with the appointment of a Director and the establishment of close working relationships with the five Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, on which the County Council are statutory partners.

  7. While there have been clear commissioning arrangements in place for adult services, government has made it mandatory that children and young peoples’ services be commissioned separately and within the context of wider children’s strategic planning. In Oxfordshire, this has been achieved by the establishment earlier this year of a DAAT Young People’s Substance Misuse Commissioning Group, supported by the newly funded post of Young People’s Commissioner. This group, chaired by the Head of Community Safety, is responsible for ensuring that services are commissioned to support the Young People’s Substance Misuse Strategy, from within the newly brought together pooled budget (April 2004 onwards).This group reports to the Children’s Programme Board.

  8. The recommendations from the Review report were presented to the DAAT Board in November 2003. The response from the DAAT is shown in Annex 3.

    9. Actions to Address the Scrutiny Review Recommendations

  9. An overall review of progress on the issues raised by the Review and the Executive’s decisions thereon appears in Annex 4. This also identifies priorities for further action.

  10. As mentioned in Annex 4, the newly established Drug Education Team (DET) in the Learning & Culture Directorate in March 2004 arranged a conference, "Not Just a Quick Fix – the Future of Drug Education in Oxfordshire". Participants were presented with a draft action plan, aimed at addressing the recommendations of the Review report. Comments were then incorporated into a final action plan for the DET, as shown in Annex 5 (download as .doc file).

    11. Financial Implications

  11. Standards Fund 204 ceased at the end of March 2004. DfES state ‘we would expect the support for drug education to be embedded within the LEAs’. Further advice states that:

  • "The DH funding for drug education (previously Standards Fund 204 in 2003-2004) is included within the partnership grant (i.e. DAAT Young People's Partnership grant). The minimum level of service delivery associated with this is to raise the quantity and quality of drug education in schools through increasing participation in the National Healthy Schools Standard and the development of drug policies"…

  • "Grant 308 for education and health partnerships (healthy schools) remains outside of the pooled budget. It is to be used to resource the full range of healthy school activities, including drug education" (This currently funds primary school drug consultants) and

  • ‘LEAs along with their DAAT partners should plan how to resource drug education in schools out of the total resources available to them.’

  1. The Council have agreed to pick up the continuation of £190,000 grant, which means that no posts need to be cut and there is the potential to develop a coordination function for Learning & Culture drug and alcohol education and further front line activity to meet the Council priority.

    2. Implications for Social Inclusion

  2. Those individuals and families affected by drug and alcohol misuse are often socially excluded. Work in this area makes a major contribution to the Council’s social inclusion agenda.

    3. RECOMMENDATIONS

  3. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

    1. note the progress made and further actions proposed in the Drug & Alcohol Action Team’s report at Annex 3 and the Action Plans at Annex 4 and 5;

    2. ask officers to keep the Executive Members for Children & Young People, Schools and Community Safety informed of future progress.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officers:
Monica Hanaway, Senior Education Officer: Head of Youth Service (01865 815690)
Shannon Moore, Senior Adviser: Partnership & Extended Learning (Schools Development Service)
Michael Simm, Head of Community Safety (01865 202218)

May 2004

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