Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Adult Care, Housing and Health.

Recommendations:

1.    That this report is accepted as the first annual update on the 3-year outlined grant plan for use of the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant as set out in July the 2022 Cabinet Paper.

2.    That Cabinet note that the Council is in year two of the current three year grant commitment. Whilst this has been made as part of a 10-year national strategy, there is currently no certainty of funding beyond 2025.

3.    That Cabinet choose to continue to support the reprofiling of spend across the agreed Grant Plan categories to mitigate the risk of underspend and returning unspent grant to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

Consideration was given to the report which provided Cabinet with an update on the last years activity regarding the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) grant for Drugs and Alcohol.  The grant was initially awarded to 50 local authorities as accelerator sites to combat drugs and alcohol.  The report outlined the activities to date and the proposals for Year 2 (23/24) of the grant which were agreed by the Combatting Drugs Partnership, an officer decision and OHID.

In July last year Cabinet accepted the Drug and Alcohol Grant funding and the spending proposals outlined in the Cabinet report ‘Public Health Proposals for Drugs and Alcohol Grant 2022-2025’. The present paper provided an update on those proposals and an overview of progress and achievements of the grant spend.

Section 2.5 of the report outlined a number of the work streams which were all progressing with the exception of the Dual Diagnosis Social Worker stream where two recruitment exercises yielded no successful candidates. Discussions were taking place to determine next steps.

Delivery through the reprofiling of spend had included additional workforce training packages, drug awareness resources for young people, 20 additional places for inpatient detoxifications and an online alcohol intervention tool (DrinkCoach).

Section 2.9 and 2.10 of the main report detailed why those outcomes were not at the preferred stage.  It was noted that whilst this had been made part of a 10-year national strategy, that there was currently no certainty of any funding beyond 2025.

The Director of Public Health reinforced the progress being made regarding drugs and alcohol due to the investment.  He noted that some levels of underspend were bound to happen and the ability to continue to make sure that the funding was invested within aspects that supported the plan in Rotherham was really important.

Resolved:

1.    That this report was accepted as the first annual update on the 3-year outlined grant plan for use of the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant as set out in July the 2022 Cabinet Paper.

2.    That Cabinet noted that the Council is in year two of the current three-year grant commitment. Whilst this has been made as part of a 10-year national strategy, there is currently no certainty of funding beyond 2025.

3.    That Cabinet chose to continue to support the reprofiling of spend across the agreed Grant Plan categories to mitigate the risk of underspend and returning unspent grant to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.