Tackling Drugs in Scotland. Page :8

Tackling Drugs in Scotland: Action in Partnership

chapter 5
Partnership driving forward delivery of the strategy is the key to success

Partnership in delivering the strategy
This chapter defines the partners who should be involved in implementing the strategy and explains how their efforts should be harnessed together.
Partnership nationally

What sort of partnership ?
Partnership driving forward delivery of the strategy is the key to success. That partnership must encompass Government and agencies with an organisational interest in tackling drug misuse. But it should also involve those affected by its wide-spread consequences including parents, young people, business and users. Other agencies, not specifically charged with tackling drug misuse, are substantially involved in Government initiatives which have a bearing on the drugs problem. The Government have also sought to involve business, with its commercial interest in successfully tackling the drug problem, and the media, which can influence the way people look at the issues. More needs to be done to bring these disparate interests together in common cause.

Main partners	Scotland Against Drugs was refocused by the Government in January 1998 with guaranteed funding of Ł1million per year until March 2001. SAD's remit is to: invest in local drug projects; forge networks with business; widen community support for anti-drugs work; and work in partnership with other agencies.
Government in Scotland should set the strategic framework for this work. It is then for individual Government departments and agencies to contribute to delivery of the overall vision, Scotland's Objectives and the strategy as a whole through their individual tasks.

Given the range of stakeholders involved and the complexity of tasks to be carried out, with both strategic and operational elements, partnership must be built at different levels and draw in the accountability mechanisms already available. The roles of the main partners should be clear and they should know what contribution is expected of them in the delivery of the strategy. The main partners are:


The Scottish Office, advised by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse Drug Action Teams and constituent agencies, represented at the national level by the DAT Association NHS as represented at the national level by the NHS Management Executive Scotland's Councils represented at the national level by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities Scottish Police Forces/Scottish Crime Squad HM Customs and Excise Voluntary agencies and community drug workers in Scotland; The Scottish Drugs Forum The Health Education Board for Scotland Scotland Against Drugs National Drug Prevention Resource; The Scottish Drug Misuse Information Strategy Team Scottish Prison Service The courts service, Crown Office and Procurators Fiscal Various Government Departments, national agencies and others e.g. The UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordination Unit, the Statutory Inspectorates, the Department of Employment, the Health and Safety Executive, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and the National Drugs Helpline.

Partnership locally
Organising partnership
Local partnership should follow established principles for successful inter-agency work where there is high level commitment from the member organisations; there are structured plans towards clear outcomes; and a culture of evaluation.

Core agencies
At the local level, representation on the DATs should reflect the key public and voluntary sectors within an area, including the core partners of health, social work, police, prisons, education and housing. Representation beyond that is a matter for individual DATs. There should however be close contact with others in a position to help deliver critical parts of the strategy. These include the Employment Service, Chambers of Commerce, Local Enterprise Councils and further education colleges, as well as the statutory and other bodies involved in local delivery of national initiatives such as Social Inclusion, Community Planning, New Deal and the New Futures Fund. The Fiscal Service should be able to help develop alternatives to prosecution and imprisonment. In some cases this may mean that DATs should establish formal mechanisms for bringing these bodies on board. An example would be the new Primary Care Trusts which should have drug misuse as a key component in their work programme. Scottish Business in the Community can be involved through local offices, but where this is not possible they can be brought in through Scotland Against Drugs. To ensure that DATs receive full political support locally, clear mechanisms should be developed for involving elected members and council decision making processes in both the development and implementation of local DAT strategies.

Social Inclusion Partnerships
DATs in Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) should increasingly look to achieving some of their aims through the Programme for Partnership. This is especially relevant to community safety strategies and business involvement in anti-drug activities. It is encouraging that drug misuse is featuring in the forward plans of SIPs, but DATs need to be more actively involved in the preparation of these plans.

Drug Forums
This work should be properly linked to the area drug forums set up throughout Scotland to support the work of the DAT. These should, as presently constituted, involve service providers, and drug misusers and their families. But, given strong representation from communities affected by drugs, the forums should also be increasingly recognised as a vital link in the accountability chain for this work.

The 1998 evaluation of DATs in Scotland found that the area drug forums have made a positive contribution to the work of the DATs. The evaluation team concluded, however, that there had been practical problems in making them work as well as they should. The Government recognise these problems, and will aim to find ways to improve their capacity to support and inform the work of the DATs.

Linking to Community Planning	Scottish Drugs Forum: umbrella agency for those concerned with drug problems; vehicle for co-ordination and communication with voluntary sector and community drugs workers; promotes collaborative and evidence based responses to drug misuse; advice and information service to professionals and the public.
The Community Planning policy developed jointly by the Government and COSLA provides a new tool for making local partnership on drugs really work. This was recognised in the consultations for this document by COSLA, SACDM and the DATs as a means of ensuring cohesion and support for work programmes led by DATs.

The initiative brings local statutory authorities and other bodies together in partnership to develop plans setting out a shared vision of the priorities facing their area, and the contribution each partner can make in attaining that vision. Further work will be required on the ways of integrating DATs into this process. It is clear however that Community Planning should bring together the agencies represented by the DATs, others who can contribute to the solutions, and the people and organisations in communities affected by drugs.

Ensuring everyone is involved
People with little formal involvement in steps to tackling drug misuse may still be very important to their success.

Business The media Communities Young people Parents Service Users Churches

Agencies need - nationally and locally - to listen to the views of these groups and engage their support.

National co-ordination and monitoring	"The overarching vehicle for advice on strategy and policy development and partnership commitment on drugs in Scotland must continue to lie with SACDM." Scottish Local Government Drugs Forum of COSLA 1999
Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse
The main mechanism for drawing together this work nationally will be the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse (SACDM), chaired by the Drugs Minister. SACDM will be the focus for co-ordination of the work and the key strategic tool for engaging Government departments and agencies in the implementation of the strategy. Membership includes a range of interests encompassing chief officers of agencies, authoritative experts on drug misuse and representatives from the voluntary sector. SACDM's role under the enhanced strategy is to advise on:

tracking progress on the strategy and ensuring implementation; overseeing the monitoring arrangements; policy development; oversight of the information and research requirements of the strategy; and adjustments required to the strategy in the light of experience.

These are important and wide-ranging tasks. Members of SACDM should have the background and skills to match and membership rounds will be used to ensure that the composition and balance of the Committee is appropriate to the challenges of implementing the strategy. For the same reason, the terms of reference of SACDM will be reviewed as necessary.

Operations sub-committee
SACDM will be supported in this work by a new operations sub-committee to monitor implementation of the strategy. This will bring together the main partner agencies, either through the membership of a SACDM member, or by co-opting an appropriate individual on to the sub-committee. There will also be the involvement of Statutory Inspectorates, Government departments outwith the Scottish Office and the interests in the criminal justice system in this work. The key tasks of this sub-committee will be co-ordinating the action across agencies in support of implementation of the strategy, identifying what individual agencies can bring to the table, overseeing annual monitoring and encouraging joint resourcing. This sub-committee will be the focal point for exchanges between the centre and DATs on progress in implementation of the strategy, in particular in relation to consideration of annual plans and annual follow up work.

Support from the centre	A new Drug Misuse Communications Group will advise on communications, including local and national publicity campaigns and drug education materials.
The essence of partnership is mutual support. A key part of the strategy is therefore ensuring that the joint action of the partners is properly supported by other partners with particular expertise to improve the end results and avoid wasteful duplication of activity. This is particularly important in the case of the DATs and individual agencies, where there may not be existing local access to information or a specific type of expertise.

This support will be provided to agencies through:

The National Drug Prevention Resource - for information, advice and support on drug prevention strategies including: good practice; local research; building drug prevention into wider social and economic regeneration programmes; local drug prevention campaigns; community based approaches; and training. There will also be allocation of monies for local research in line with the strategy. Health Education Board For Scotland - is the national agency for health education addressing drug misuse within the context of promoting health more generally. HEBS communicates with the public directly, fosters and supports health information at local levels and gives advice to policy makers. Scottish Drugs Forum - supports, advises and represents a wide range of interests in order to promote collaborative and evidence based responses to tackling drug use particularly in the area of drug treatment and care. Scotland Against Drugs - cross-party Campaign launched in May 1996 to raise public awareness and take a fresh approach to Scotland's drug misuse problem. Has been refocused to provide advice and assistance in pulling in business support for local anti-drugs activities and enlisting business partners for community based drugs projects. Drugs Enforcement Forum - brings together the bodies involved in drugs enforcement (police, Customs and Excise, Crown Office, local authorities and other Government departments) under the chairmanship of The Scottish Office to strengthen action on drugs enforcement in Scotland, in line with this strategy. Scottish Drug Misuse Information Strategy Team - for advice and support on all drug misuse information requirements including key indicator data, access to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database, utilisation of the Internet and European issues. SACDM's research sub-committee - will identify research priorities through reviewing existing work, consulting DATs, ISD, service providers and the research community. The sub-committee will put in place mechanisms for disseminating research findings to the field. Drug Misuse Communications Group - for advice on communications issues through the Group and constituent members, including key drug prevention messages, the availability of drug education materials, and local and national publicity campaigns.

Clinical specialists
Designed to Care (1997), the NHSiS White Paper is bringing about changes in the organisation and function of clinical services for drug misusers at the primary care, specialist psychiatric, and physical health care levels. Clinical Governance involving all health care professions in working to an agreed clinical standard, the Primary Care Trust, uniting mental health, community and general practice teams in one organisational framework, and the annual Health Improvement Plan, setting out commissioning and resource allocation intentions are all intended to provide services which are fit for the community's requirements. All clinical staff are expected to deliver care and treatment in line with the evidence of what works best. Local learning networks to allow the sharing of good practice, the development of services in effective patterns, self audit, and participation in research and training may be needed to support these developments. This issue will be considered as part of the follow-up to the publication of the Clinical Management Handbook.

Government will: set the strategic direction and monitor progress; provide national co-ordination; give clear guidance; allocate national funding in line with the strategy; work with the UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator; and provide central support to DATs and other agencies. At the local level DATs and other agencies should: commit to implementation of the strategy; work in partnership led by the DATs; align priorities, resources and operational focus in line with the strategy; prepare corporate plans reflecting local circumstances and views; and co-operate in the monitoring and evaluation of the strategy at national and local level.