Tuesday/11/Dec 2007 Filed in:
InfoSome 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...Tags: Information, employment, NRF, Skills and Training, social inclusion, Working Neighbourhoods Fund, DaTs, reintegration
Friday/16/Nov 2007 Filed in:
CommentaryThere's a conference being advertised at the moment looking at Complex Needs in Drugs and Alcohol. Complex needs, the organisers tell us, are the needs of a someone in treatment to have access to employment, housing, or healthcare and they'll be a key focus for drug and alcohol providers in the next drug strategy.
This is not a definition of complex needs that I've ever heard before. Most usually "Complex Needs" refers to people with multiple disabilities or a profound depth of need relating to a primary condition. While I am willing to accept that someone who uses drugs may have more difficulty in accessing housing or employment or primary healthcare than someone who doesn't use drugs I don't think that this means that their need for housing or employment or primary healthcare is complex. Surely housing and employment and healthcare are basic needs that mainstream services should be capable of satisfying? Read More...Tags: Complex Needs, Service access, exclusion, employment, primary healthcare, reintegration