Issue - meetings

10.40 am

At the last meeting of this Committee the Oxfordshire Local Involvement Network (LINk) made reference to the closure in 2007 of the Oxford Drug Recovery Project (DRP). Members of the OJHOSC were concerned by what they heard from the LINk particularly as it appeared that there had been no consultation when the closure of the DRP had taken place. Furthermore, undertakings had been given to reopen the DRP but , to date, there had been no action.

Members decided to defer full consideration of the report until this meeting so that additional contributors could be invited to enable a rounded picture to be developed.

Richard Lohman and Adrian Chant from the LINk will attend again for this item. In addition the following people will attend the meeting to provide background to the past and future of the DRP:

-           Jo Melling, DAAT Director;

-           Alan Webb, PCT Director of Service Redesign;

-           Darren Worthington, Chief Executive of SMART, a charity working to reduce drug and alcohol use in Oxfordshire;

-           Glenda Daniels, service user involvement coordinator of an independent charity that represents drug and alcohol service users; and

-           Dr Angela Jones who is a GP who worked from 1999 – 2007 in the Luther Street Medical Centre in Oxford providing drug and alcohol services for people experiencing homelessness in Oxford.

A copy of the LINk report from the January meeting is attached at JHO7(a) together with a report from the DAAT (JHO7(b)).

The Committee welcomed Jo Melling, DAAT Director; Alan Webb, Oxfordshire PCT; Darren Worthington, Chief Executive of SMART; Glenda Daniels, service user involvement coordinator of OUT; Dr Angela Jones, GP formerly working at the Luther Street Medical Centre; and Richard Lohman, Steering Group member of Oxfordshire LINk to the meeting;

Alan Webb introduced the item giving a brief resume of the situation to date, stating that the service had been retendered in 2007 as a result of a change in its major funder, which had previously been Housing Services. Since then the major challenge had centred around finding suitable premises. He reported that property had now been found in Iffley Road, Oxford and would be secured in the near future. Mr Webb pointed out that when the PCT as host commissioner had gone out to re-tender, the DAAT had been assured that the service would not be disadvantaged and that funding would be provided from out of county placements if needed.

Jo Melling added that, when re-commissioning the service, the principal aim had been to develop a good, effective local treatment programme which was different from  other services provided in other areas. At the time, practitioners had been consulted on the new service, but the premises issue had been sprung upon them and there had thus been no opportunity to go out to further consultation. Her view was that the clients had not felt disadvantaged by this, citing statistics from an annual user survey. No individual cases of people disadvantaged had been brought to light by service users themselves of by other organisations. In response to a question from the acting Chairman asking if she was sufficiently confident that there had been sufficient consultation, Ms Melling and Glenda Daniels assured the Committee that the service consulted constantly and that they were satisfied with the level of involvement. Some cases had been resolved via advocacy over the last three years and each had been assured that placements could be provided out of county. Moreover the new service was working with SMART to ensure that there was ongoing service user consultation. Users were happy with the service provided.

In response to a question from a member of the Committee asking if all the service users were happy to work with SMART, and if there was a reciprocal consultation arrangement with other counties, Glenda Daniels commented that SMART was a criminal justice focused service and that there had been a cohort of people stating their dissatisfaction with this. She added that much work had been done to rebrand SMART in light of the different nature of services they were to provide and it was her view that a new side to SMART would be experienced when the new drop in centre was established. Darren Worthington added that SMART now provided a range of services for each stage of recovery and indeed provided services across the Thames Valley region, not just to the DAAT. Jo Melling confirmed this, adding that although SMART as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20