Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Limited consideration of women in drug strategy overlooks specific barriers to treatment access.
Conclusion
We were concerned that the government’s drug strategy made little reference to women.70 Written evidence submitted by the Office of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner underlined the limited consideration of women and girls in the strategy, and the lack of reference to wider work on women in the criminal justice system.71 This was reinforced by evidence submitted by Dr Fay Dennis of Goldsmiths, University of London, who highlighted that barriers to drug treatment were magnified for those marginalised by gender, sexuality, class and race.72 When asked what was being done to target different cohorts of people taking drugs, the JCDU told us it was aware there are specific barriers faced by women seeking treatment for drugs misuse but could not offer any examples of targeted treatment services. It is up to the combating drugs partnerships to draw up local needs assessments, taking account of the differing demographics in their area.73 61 Q 83 62 Qq 6, 38, 40 63 Supplementary evidence from Mr Mike Trace, Chief Executive Officer of Forward Trust, 13 December 2023 64 Q 40 65 Q 74 66 Supplementary evidence from Mr Mike Trace, Chief Executive Officer of Forward Trust 67 C&AG’s Report, para 1.3 68 Qq 118–121 69 C&AG’s Report, para 1.6 70 Q 136 71 (RHD0007) 72 (RHD0002) 73 Q 136 Reducing the harm from illegal drugs 15 Preventing drug use
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the committee's concern regarding women, committing to specific work addressing service access needs for protected groups, supporting local authorities to commission needs-based services, and developing national outcomes framework measures to understand differential impacts.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: April 2025 5.2 The Drug Strategy sets out the government’s overall ambition to ‘monitor impacts across the strategy’s whole system approach to track progress towards better outcomes and avoid any unintended consequences, such as widening inequalities’. This commitment has included specific work on addressing different patterns of use and service access needs in treatment and recovery experienced by people from protected groups. Work commissioned by DHSC found that while some of the differences could be explained by other factors, such as age and deprivation, there are cultural barriers to accessing and engaging with treatment and support services, including stigma and lack of culturally competent services. This is why the strategy sets out the ambition for a system that will promote equality and meet the needs of all communities, including people from ethnic minority backgrounds and women. 5.3 The role of local partnerships is essential here. Drug Strategy guidance for local delivery partners, published in June 2022, sets out how ‘equality of access and quality’ should be adopted as a key principle by Combating Drugs Partnerships. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning services which meet the needs of different groups and populations. Current work by DHSC to support them to do this includes: • enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; • providing targeted support to local areas; • supporting workforce development; • implementation of a new commissioning quality standard; • commissioning relevant research; and • sharing good practice. 5.4 Across the strategy the government will further develop the supporting measures in its national outcomes framework to better understand differential impacts across protected groups and what more it can do to address them.