Every local authority across England to be allocated additional funding to help combat drug and alcohol misuse

Local authorities across England will benefit from almost £267 million of government funding next year to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.

The funding, which will be rolled out in April 2024, will enable local authorities to:

Health Minister Neil O’Brien said:

More people will benefit from residential rehabilitation or inpatient detoxification, while improvements to the recovery services will sustain people’s treatment and help to reduce relapse rates.

This funding is in addition to £95.4 million made available in 2022 to 2023 and £154.3 million for this year – with an overall additional investment of £421 million into drug and alcohol treatment since April 2022.

From Harm to Hope, published in December 2021, sets out the government’s 10-year ambition to ensure as many people as possible can get the treatment they need by significantly increasing the number of treatment places and recovery services.

Over the first three years of the strategy, the additional investment in treatment and recovery will help prevent nearly 1,000 drug-related deaths - reversing the upward trend in drug deaths for the first time in a decade.

The strategy also sets out that illegal drug use such as heroin and crack addiction are connected to half of all homicides, and nearly half of all burglaries, robberies and other acquisitive crimes. Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs found the best way to tackle this issue is by boosting the capacity of the treatment and recovery system.

Professor Dame Carol Black, independent adviser to the government on combating drug misuse, said:

Delivering quality treatment provision is core to recovery, and in addition to this significant investment additional grant funding has gone into accommodation and employment support.

The government’s work to clamp down on criminal gangs profiting from the trade in illegal drugs is backed by £300 million investment (over three years). Since the County Lines Programme was launched in 2019, police activity has resulted in over 4,700 lines closed, 14,800 arrests, and 7,200 safeguarding referrals.

Examples of the work supported in 2023 to 2024 include:

This funding is prioritised for areas with the highest need, based on the rate of drug deaths, deprivation, opiate and crack cocaine prevalence and crime, considering of the size of the treatment population.

Alice Wiseman, Policy Lead for Addiction at the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) said:

Treatment will be available for a wide range of substances, including heroin, crack, powder cocaine, ecstasy, and cannabis - the latter remaining the most common substance (87%) for which young people receive treatment.

This investment should have clear links to support the plans from Combating Drugs Partnerships on how it will reduce drug-related crime, including improving access and take up of quality treatment for those dependent on Opiate and Crack Cocaine.

To support this, the government has targeted work across the criminal justice system to increase referrals, including a new police-led referrals into treatment plan, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and supported by the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care.