Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Deputy Director of Public Health.

The purpose of this report is to brief the Scrutiny Committee on the current consultation on the proposals for redesign of Stockport’s drug and alcohol treatment system, including early responses, and to provide Scrutiny members with further opportunities to comment on the proposals.

The Scrutiny Committee is invited to comment on the proposals for service redesign.

Officer contact: Donna Sager, 0161-474-3928, donna.sager@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Director of Public Health submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) updating the Scrutiny Committee on the current consultation being undertaken on proposals to redesign the local drug and alcohol treatment system. A presentation was also made giving the Scrutiny Committee the headline outcomes from recent focus group consultations with service users.

The following comments were made/ issues raised in relation to the consultation and the proposals generally:-

·         The qualitative feedback from service users was often more valuable than quantitative data, given that the primary concern of a service user should be their recovery.

·         Self-esteem was a key component to recovery, and peer support/ volunteering was a value means to improve this for service users. The work of CASU was an example of this.

·         Those seeking treatment could be concerned about their situation becoming known to their local community. It may be helpful to co-ordinate with other local authorities to provide opportunities for treatment out of the area.

·         The consultation showed that while there was broad support for greater focus on recovery and early intervention, there was also a reluctance to support the scaling back of funding to structured services, which was in contradiction to the first proposal.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report and consultation feedback be noted.

(2) That in relation to the Drug and Alcohol Redesign proposals that formed part of the Preventative Commissioning Strategy Business Case, it was recognised that the proposals would reduce structured treatment, but that the Scrutiny Committee nonetheless believed that the proposed focus on recovery and early intervention would outweigh any disadvantages of the proposed reductions in treatment.