Independent review of drugs, part 2: prevention, treatment and recovery ‒ terms of reference
Published 2 July 2020
Applies to England
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Aim
Following the publication on 27 February 2020 of part 1 of Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs, the government has commissioned part 2. This will focus on prevention, treatment and recovery.
The review will make policy recommendations to government, including on what level of service provision is required and on what commissioning and accountability mechanisms should be put in place, to make sure that these services are effective and succeed in preventing, treating and supporting recovery from drug problems.
Principles
The review will be conducted independently and will be evidence based. It will draw its conclusions from the evidence to ensure there is a robust basis for review’s recommendations.
Purpose and scope of review
The purpose of the review is to provide specific recommendations for government policy to improve access to and the quality and outcomes of drug prevention, treatment and recovery services.
The review will include consideration of children and young people. The review will apply to services in England.
The review will consider a wide variety of evidence:
- a call for evidence from stakeholders
- official statistics
- visits
- stakeholder engagement, including service users and people with lived experience
- research reports
- academic literature
This will enable the review to build a detailed picture of drug prevention, treatment and recovery.
Questions
Part 2 of this independent review of drugs will address the following questions.
- What are the most effective policies and interventions that will prevent drug use, reduce drug related harm and mortality, and improve treatment and recovery outcomes?
- What level of service provision is required to ensure that services aimed at drug prevention, treatment and recovery are easy to access, effective, and able to reduce harm. And also that they respond to new patterns of use and meet the needs of those with a dependency?
- What can be done to reduce regional variation in outcomes and ensure that the government’s ambition to ‘levelling up’ is realised?
Prevention
- What are the vulnerabilities that lead people to start taking drugs and what universal interventions can be deployed to help people avoid addiction, particularly to reduce inter-generational problems?
- What targeted interventions are most successful at preventing and reducing harm, particularly within vulnerable groups?
Young people
- What can be done to reverse the recent trend in increased drug misuse among children and young people? And what services are required to meet their needs?
- Are there any significant gaps in current models of provision, to respond to the needs of younger drug users or new patterns of drug use?
Treatment and recovery
- What are the best models for commissioning and providing drug treatment and recovery services in the community and in prisons, and for securing effective accountability for those services across different organisations at national and local level?
- What incentives, levers and mechanisms can be introduced to ensure that services are effective and respond to the needs of local and prison populations so that current variation can be reduced?
- What are the main gaps in the capacity and competencies in the current drug treatment workforce (both providers and commissioners), and what action can be taken to address these?
- How can the employment, housing and wider social, physical and mental health needs of those in treatment best be met to help people to achieve and sustain recovery? And what is the best approach to pooling funding, co-ordinating place-based delivery and information sharing between agencies?
- What needs to be done to improve the interface between the treatment and criminal justice system focusing on: pathways from conditional cautions, prison treatment, diversion from charge or custody, community sentences, and on ‘through the gate’ services on release)?
- How can the needs of rough sleepers and the homeless best be met, including any lessons learned from approaches taken in response to COVID-19?
Independent reviewer
The review will be led by Professor Dame Carol Black, supported by officials from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Public Health England (PHE), with input from other key government departments including the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education.
Timing
Part 2 of the review will be launched on 2 July 2020 and will provide interim recommendations in September for consideration during the spending review.
More detailed evidence and recommendations about how to improve models of commissioning, provision and accountability, and also how to strengthen the capacity and capability of the workforce will follow by the end of 2020.