Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
New substance misuse treatment funding is welcomed, but remains short-term and insufficient.
Conclusion
We heard from Ms Wiseman that local government welcomes the additional £533 million boost to funding for substance misuse treatment services provided through the 10-year drug strategy, and that it was good to have it ringfenced. However, Ms Wiseman cautioned that it did not take them back up to previous levels of funding and that wider local government cuts have impacted other services which help people in recovery such as services providing housing and employment support. The additional funding is short- term and covers the three years from 2022–23 to 2024–25. Ms Wiseman confirmed that she did not know whether, after 2024–25, her local authority would still have money to pay for any new staff recruited during these three years.26 Government has also made smaller pots of funding available in these years to help local authorities provide specialist drug and alcohol treatment to people who sleep rough and to prison leavers. The NAO reported that the numbers of people in treatment for alcohol dependency had not yet recovered to 2013–14 levels (90,000), but did increase to 85,000 in 2021–22, 10% more than in 2020–21.27
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to improve certainty and timeliness of funding allocations, committing to giving as much notice as feasible. It has already published indicative Public Health Grant allocations for 2024-25 and aims to publish final 2024-25 allocations before the end of 2023.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The government is committed to improving certainty around funding for drug and alcohol treatment services to local authorities and agrees that this is important to enable local authorities to effectively plan and commission services, and deliver the right investments. 3.3 The department is committed to giving as much notice as is feasible of Public Health Grant allocations and any additional funding for drug and alcohol treatment services for future years. For example, the department has already published indicative Public Health Grant and drug strategy allocations for 2024-25 in order to support systems to plan ahead and will aim to publish 2024-25 allocations before the end of 2023.