Inspecting the field - Harm Reduction and Commissioning Systems
Monday/12/May 2008 Filed in: Info
Last week the Healthcare Commission and the NTA published their penultimate improvement review looking at the separate themes of Harm Reduction Services and Commissioning Systems.
Scoring local areas from "weak" to "excellent" the review gives us some interesting information about the maturity of our commissioning systems and the effectiveness of harm reduction implementation and planning, but does the inspection report raise more questions than it answers?
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Strategic Directions
Confused about what the nuts and bolts of the new strategy might mean for your services or your partnership?
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Read More...New Drug Strategy Guide - Hot Off The Press
Friday/14/Mar 2008 Filed in: Info
Its out - the LDPF Interim Update to the Guide to the National Drug Strategy.
Produced by the LDPF and supported by the RSA, this update to the blue guide published last year provides some ideas about integration of your local drug strategy in the broader LAA agenda, and looks at the implications of the new strategy for local partnerships.
Read More...How Was It For You - A Drug Policy Review of the Year (Part Two)
Friday/04/Jan 2008 Filed in: Info - Commentary
Part two of the best and worst of 2007 - including the National Drug Strategy Consultation, The Big Book of Drug Policy from the Conservatives, The Little Book of Legalisation from Transform Drug Policy Foundation and THAT Today programme interview ... Read More...
How Was It For You? - A Drug Policy Review of the Year (Part 1)
Saturday/29/Dec 2007 Filed in: Info - Commentary
Part one of a review of the high - and low - lights of the past year. Including the Pooled Treatment Budget increase that wasn't, capital investment in tier 4, the Harm Reduction Action Plan and the Drug Strategy Consultation plus much much more ribald and unbuttoned fun from the wacky world of drug policy .... part two next week.
(Thanks to The Daily Dose and Drink and Drugs News for their impeccably kept online archives - without them I would have had to make it all up ... then again, you couldn't really could you?)
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(Thanks to The Daily Dose and Drink and Drugs News for their impeccably kept online archives - without them I would have had to make it all up ... then again, you couldn't really could you?)
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Drugs Forgotten in New Government Agreement
Wednesday/12/Dec 2007 Filed in: Info - Commentary
A new agreement that devolves power away from Whitehall down to Local Partnerships is going to make a huge difference to the way government works. But why has the Drug Strategy been left out of this important piece of work and what have the people in Government who are meant to promote joined up solutions to drug problems been doing about it? Read More...
Work Works
Tuesday/11/Dec 2007 Filed in: Info
Some pretty creative work around drug - and particularly - alcohol use has been funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) up and down the country over the past few years. Projects looking at regeneration, workskills - and in some of the most creative partnerships - essentially the elements of treatment we know should be in place but which simply weren't fundable through the pooled treatment budget - like workplace mentoring and advocacy schemes.
But in 2008, NRF ends. I know a lot of projects I've been talking to are worried that their funding won't be replaced by mainstream monies or by drug specific spend. There's a feeling too that no one is really putting pressure on local partnerships engaged in regeneration to think about drugs after NRF.
Well the Government has announced its replacement for NRF. Its called The Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) and its going to be available to local partnerships (that is Local Strategic Partnerships*) in the most deprived areas to support initiatives that increase enterprise and get more people back into work. There's £1.5 billion going to 86 areas across England. The areas getting WNF were announced on the 6th December. Read More...
More than your job's worth? - Local Government Indicators 1
Monday/12/Nov 2007 Filed in: Info
Its one of those anorak moments - the Department for Communities and Local Government has today opened a consultation on the indicators for the new performance management framework for Local Government.
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