Calderdale drug treatment provision has continued to reflect the ongoing changes in local and national strategy. In 2004, the growth of DIP and increased capacity of Calderdale Substance Misuse Service (CSMS) led to an internal review of Lifeline Calderdale’s adult provision – DIP Aftercare, Progress to Work and Day Service provision. The review highlighted the need to improve the experience of people as they travel through services. People leaving prison in need of: housing, prescribing services, work experience, activity to occupy time, and support with family matters; do not necessarily want to know which funding stream or strategy provides what. Often people will lapse and do not want to start back at the beginning. Where possible it is critical to help people experience some success as they navigate mainstream services. We want to continue to build services that are responsive to responsive to the needs of people in the treatment system, whether they be on license, managing problematic use or seeking work while maintained on a script, and particularly if they just don’t know where to start.In 2004 we secured an agreement to extend the age range of our Positive Futures provision to twenty five, enhancing transitional work between services and adding value through resource sharing initiatives. We also began to pilot family support work, designed and delivered across our services, and working with CSMS, in a single programme. The initial work looks promising and forty people (parents who use drug services and their children) attended the last event. The Young Persons Service went though a commissioning review and will continue to deliver tier 2/3 work against a new contract. The review provided a clearer basis for our joint working protocols as we anticipate the effects of the move to the Integrated Children’s Services model.

The majority of our delivery depends on a high degree of partnership and networking for its success. Delivering a number of non-statutory contracts as a voluntary agency provider has demanded that staff have had to push at the boundaries of larger and more established teams. We have had to ensure, for example, that other services understand and refer to Progress to Work. At the same time, we are very much participants in the delivery of the overall treatment plan and contribute to national data sets. While this duality is occasionally very challenging, the rewards have been manifold in that our teams include staff with a very developed sense of what our objectives are. We have been supported, in no small measure, in the joint pursuit of those objectives by the candid and enlightening feedback of service users throughout the year.

Piccadilly Project (sole alcohol service) in Bradford took another step towards integration into mainstream planning in 2004 via temporary commissioning arrangements with the PCT’s. Meanwhile, the service continues to deliver individual and group support and to contribute to improved integration of alcohol services into the commissioning and treatment planning for the district. However the future of alcohol provision is still being discussed nationally and locally at a strategic level; we anticipate next year to be a critical one for the future of the project.

Maggie Rogan