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DRAFT NATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS FOR SUBSTANCE MISUSE SERVICES - SUMMARY OF CONSULTATION
1 Introduction
The Scottish Executive held a consultation about the draft standards between February and April 2006 and invited individuals and organisations with an interest in substance misuse to respond. The consultation combined four elements: a consultation document and questionnaire, a set of six workshops, three pilot projects to test how practical measuring the standards would be and two service users' meetings.
Reports on the individual elements of the consultation are available on the Scottish Executive website.
2 Main Points Arising from the Consultation
There was a great degree of consistency between the comments made through all the elements of the consultation. The main points raised were:
2.1Clarification of the Standards
- The standards are welcomed and are applicable to most services that deal with people experiencing problems with either alcohol, drugs or both, but all standards will not apply to all services. It should be made clear that services will only be expected to meet those standards that are applicable to the type of service that is being provided. Service users' perspective was that the standards were not being met at present.
What services the standards apply to and some terms used in them require clarification. To address this additional guidance, including a glossary of the terms used, should accompany the standards. - Some of the draft standard statements may require revising and various suggestions were made regarding this.
- There is a need for information on the standards to be available in different formats and they should be explained in person by the services.
2.2Areas that Require Additional Emphasis within the Standards
- More emphasis should be placed on how the standards address the needs of children and young people and how they tie into existing regulations and good practice guidelines. This could be done by highlighting these areas and making reference to current regulations in the introduction to the standards.
- The responsibilities of service users should be more clearly indicated within the standards. The service users' meetings indicated that this should reflect the service users' part in their own recovery.
2.3Importance of Participation in Implementation of the Standards
- To be effective the standards need commitment from everyone they concern and it is important to fully involve all stakeholders in the process.
- It is particularly critical that service users are involved, encouraged and supported to participate in developing the standards and in any evaluation, monitoring and inspection processes. Their views should be sought and taken into consideration at all stages, in ways that are appropriate and allow them to feel safe.
2.4Implementing, Monitoring, Evaluating and Inspection of the Standards
- Although initially it is perceived that implementation of the standards will be difficult this will ease over time.
- Monitoring of the standards should incorporate a variety of systems already in use. A framework should be developed which is able to be used nationally, allows for differences both in locality and in type of service provision and builds on good practice criteria.
- Local area commissioners should ensure that the standards are supported by making them integral to service level agreements between themselves and the services. They should perform routine reviews of the services to ensure compliance.
- Tools to assist services to measure themselves against the standards need to be developed and monitoring and inspection criteria made explicit. These should use and combine existing systems rather than impose new ones.
2.5Sharing Information, Resources and Partnership Working
- To make the best possible use of information and resources, partnership working needs to be fostered and encouraged. Protocols should be developed to enable inter-agency information and resource sharing. This message should be reinforced locally by Alcohol and Drug Action Teams ( ADATs) and nationally by the Scottish Executive.
- Methods of collecting and disseminating information should be developed which will be compatible with any national information technology ( IT) systems. This would include standardised monitoring tools and shared assessments. This would require investment in developing electronic systems which have the ability to communicate with each other.
2.6Strategic Development
- Results of the monitoring process and data collected should inform local action plans, be included in national reporting requirements and used to inform and develop Scottish drug and alcohol strategies and policies.
- Additional resources will be required including finance, training and support. National and local strategies should ensure that adequate provision for this is available. It is however recognised that most of the resources necessary for the implementation of the standards are already in existence and would only require some realignment to enable these to be used more effectively.
3 Main Actions Arising from Consultation
3.1Clarification of the Standards
- Consideration should be given to the suggested alterations arising from the consultation and guidance documents developed to accompany the final standards. The standards should be made available in a variety of formats.
- How services that are not publicly funded would comply with the standards should be investigated.
3.2Areas that Require Additional Emphasis within the Standards
- Standards should be revised to place more importance on the needs of children and young people and to indicate more precisely the responsibilities of service users.
3.3Importance of Participation in Implementation of the Standards
- Efforts should be taken to ensure all stakeholders, including service users are encouraged to participate fully in the development and implementation of the standards.
3.4Implementing, Monitoring, Evaluating and Inspection of the Standards
- Monitoring tools and a national framework should be developed which will recognise different types of service, link to existing inspection structures but will not impose any additional burden on services.
- Methods should be established to ensure that the whole process of measuring services against the standards is viewed as a positive experience.
3.5Sharing Information, Resources and Partnership Working
- Scottish Executive, local ADATs and commissioners of services should make additional efforts to promote partnership working between services and encourage interagency information and resource sharing. This should include investigating the possibility of developing comprehensive integrated electronic systems.
- Ways of ensuring adequate resources and suitable support are available over a sustained period should be investigated.
3.6Strategic Development
- The data collected by the monitoring process should inform local action plans, be included in any national reporting requirements and used to assist in developing Scottish drug and alcohol strategies and policies.
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