Resourcing and Managing the Work
For the strategy to be effective, clarity about the delivery mechanisms - the structures, resources, responsibilities, accountability and basis for audit and evaluation - is essential.
UK Coordination
Genuine collaboration across Government is the driving force behind this strategy. The role of individual departments, agencies and the voluntary and private sectors is to contribute to the overall vision and aims, in addition to their own specific tasks. The Cabinet sub-Committee on Drug Misuse - known as HS(D) - will be the Ministerial body responsible for ensuring that this occurs.
The UK Anti-Drugs Coordinator and his Deputy report to HS(D). Their role on behalf of Ministers is to provide the day-to-day leadership and focus on implementing and developing the Government's strategy. The Coordinator will, in particular, scrutinise rigorously the performance of departments and agencies - individually and collectively - against the actions, objectives and performance indicators set out in this report; and produce a National Anti-Drugs Plan for implementation in each succeeding year. Departments will continue to be responsible for their own policies and resources, and accountable to their Ministers accordingly. But the Coordinator's responsibility to the Government for the production of his Annual Report and Plan, means that progress across the board will be coordinated and open to scrutiny.
To aid his role, the Coordinator will chair a new body named the UK Anti-Drugs Strategic Steering Group, which will meet regularly to help the Coordinator assess overall progress in implementing the strategy, including its resources; consider relevant developments in the rest of the UK and internationally; and plan to account for progress and the way forward via the Coordinator's Annual Report and Plan.
Representation on the Strategic Steering Group will include senior officials from within Government, and individuals from independent bodies, professional drug agencies, local government, business and Drug Action Teams.
The Deputy UK Anti-Drugs Coordinator will, in turn, take forward the key elements of this White Paper through four newly formed Strategy Support Groups - one group for each aim of the strategy, each group meeting regularly. The key tasks of these groups will be to monitor progress against each aim; assess the need for further support in its implementation; consider emerging training, research and information needs; and monitor resource implications. These groups will report back to the Steering Group.
The Coordinator's and Deputy's roles can only be effective through collaboration and involvement of a wide range of supportive groups and individuals. To this end they will have support from the UK Anti-Drugs Coordination Unit (previously known as the Central Drugs Coordination Unit), a Unit in the Privy Council Office, reporting to the President of the Council, whose funding arrangements will be put on a long-term basis. The UKADCU's role will be to support the monitoring and effective implementation of this strategy. To fulfil this role, the UKADCU will work very closely with Departments, Drug Action Teams and individual agencies to develop a comprehensive network of resources and support mechanisms geared towards the strategy's implementation.
Resources
Government expenditure in tackling drug misuse is considerable but poorly coordinated. As a result of the work on drug-related spending carried out for the Comprehensive Spending Review, we know that total Government expenditure for 1997/98 was in the region of £1.4 billion. This big increase in estimated expenditure - compared to £500 million in 1993/94 - relates primarily to a more realistic assessment of the drugs related proportion of generic police/prison/probation/education/health activity. We estimate that 62% of this total is currently spent on enforcement related work, much of it reactive and not drugs-specific (eg police, court, probation and prisions) and therefore, not straightforwardly transferable to preventative programmes; 13% on treatment; 12% on prevention and education; and 13% on international supply reduction. No more than a third of that total expenditure is currently spent on preventing drug misuse (as opposed to coping with the consequences of the problem). Minimum estimated costs of the social problems generated by severely dependent drug misusers alone are in the region of £3-4 billion annually.
Existing resource provision is ad hoc rather than strategic; allocation mechanisms are largely historically driven; the pattern of the delivery of resources to local anti-drugs projects is complicated and random; efforts to realise substantial confiscated assets from drug-related activity have not previously been successful; and there has been a lack of clear coordination between objectives, resources and outcomes. In moving forward, it is clear that the Government's resources must be linked to this strategy.
An announcement on funding from 1999/2000 will be made later in the year, following the outcome of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. Reforms will be guided by the following principles:
- drug-related expenditure should over time shift away from reacting to the consequences of the drugs problem and towards positive investment in preventing and targeting it;
- the bulk of targeted resources should be spent on collaborative projects which tackle high priority groups - in particular vulnerable young people, drug-related offenders and problem drug misusers;
- resources for drug-specific activities should receive priority within health authorities budgets, and on the basis of partnership work wherever appropriate. Health authorities should be required to deliver this strategy through the NHS Priorities and Planning Guidance. The development of the new NHS and Public Health White Papers should be used to ensure that health authorities give adequate provision to meeting the aims of the strategy through central guidance. Health authorities will be expected to include anti-drugs measures in their Health Improvement Programme;
- an element should be identified within health authorities' drug allocation for developing specific young people's services. This should enable health authorities to develop services in line with Department of Health guidance;
- funding for the purchase of community care services for drug misusers should be given adequate priority by local authorities. The Department of Health should take steps to ensure that this money is used for drug-specific partnership work, with mechanisms put in place to ensure that current expenditure on drug misusers from local authority community care funding is protected;
- police forces should aim to direct resources from within their budgets to drugs-specific partnership work, with explicit priority given to this work in Police Authority Annual Policing plans and the national key policing objectives, set by the Home Secretary and performance indicators and targets aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- the Prison Service should aim to direct resources from within their budget to drugs-specific partnership work, including treatment provision, with explicit priority given to this work in the Prison Service business plan, and performance indicators and targets aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- probation services should aim to direct resources from within their budgets to drugs-specific partnership work, with explicit priority given to this work in local plans and the national key probation objectives, and performance indicators and targets aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- local education authorities should include clear policy statements on drugs education, and any performance indicators and targets aligned to the new strategy, within their behaviour support plans. An LEA's anti-drugs strategy will also be reflected in its education development plan where this emerges as a priority;
- HM Customs and Excise should maintain their commitment to funding drug-related activity - and ensure that partnership work is reaffirmed strongly in their management plans, with performance indicators and targets aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- the National Criminal Intelligence Service should ensure that partnership work is reaffirmed strongly in their service plan, and to consider in consultation with the Coordinator the development of objectives with performance indicators and targets aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- the National Crime Squad should ensure that partnership work is reaffirmed strongly in their service plan, and to consider in consultation with the Coordinator the development of objectives with performance indicators aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- Drug Action Teams should be the principal mechanism by which agencies will develop the resource partnerships outlined above, and will assess regularly whether the spending plans and projected outcomes of all agencies represented on them are aligned explicitly to the new strategy;
- the value for money of Government and other anti-drugs expenditure against outcomes should be monitored at national level via the UK Strategic Steering Group and Strategy Support Groups and locally via the Drug Action Teams; and
- securing partnership funding should be given high priority at every level, led by the national partnership between Government and Business in the Community;
For the first time, a proportion of assets seized from drug barons will be channelled back into anti-drugs programmes to help those who have suffered at their hands and on whose misfortune they have prospered. The Government is considering how this can best be achieved. More details of these considerations will be issued later this year.
The efficient and effective delivery of the strategy's objectives will, of course, determine the specific resources required over time, and resource provision will accordingly be regularly reviewed in the Coordinator's Annual Report and Plan of Action Against Drug Misuse.
Regional Coordination and Delivery of Strategy
Drug Action Teams, supported by their Reference Groups, have worked well in most parts of the country in forging partnerships against drugs amongst the key local agencies. The time is right to step up a gear in relation to this partnership activity, so that a sharper focus is brought to bear on implementing this strategy. This should link up where necessary with other local partnership initiatives on welfare-to-work, health, education, housing, community safety, youth justice, local democracy and social exclusion. Links with these other partnerships will develop over time, but will not diminish the importance of the work against drugs at local and regional level, via Drug Action Teams. The strategic requirements set out below reinforce both the need for a continuing focus on local drugs problems and ensuring that other social partnerships contribute to that work.
All Drug Action Teams in England are to agree corporate plans annually with the UK Anti-Drugs Coordinator by the end of each calendar year. Templates will be provided by UKADCU. These plans will feed into the Annual Report and Plan and include:
- an assessment of current progress against the new strategy;
- an analysis of existing local resources upon which each DAT has influence both within its own organisations and jointly targeted;
- proposals for allocating those resources to match the priority aims and actions set out in this strategy;
- specific outcome measures against all relevant areas under the aims set out in this strategy - including services for vulnerable young people, criminal justice/treatment; rehabilitation of problem drug misusers and disruption of local drug markets;
- proposals for short, medium and longer-term targets against those measures in line with the national targets to be developed;
- agreement with all other Drug Action Teams within their metropolitan or shire county area on the basis of a corporate and strategic overview to the plans individual DATs have drawn up. This is to ensure strategic coherence to the plans across each county, a genuinely senior level of strategic input from the key players, and consonance with the development of other relevant shire and metropolitan county partnerships. Where appropriate, DATs will wish to liaise with relevant regional tiers of government. This overview will be the most important part of the plan in enabling the Coordinator to take stock of progress. Those DATs which currently do not operate on a shire or metropolitan county level will have a more complex process to go through than the 26 DATs currently operating on those lines. The focus of our support will therefore be on the remaining 80 DATs.
These plans will deliver greater consistency and provide the basis for attracting additional resources - including some drugs-specific funding from central Government, Lottery funding and partnership money from the private and voluntary sectors - and will be assessed on that basis. The Government and the Coordinators will be engaging directly with Drug Action Teams across England to ensure that the planning process is as clear and unbureaucratic as possible.
Drug Action Teams must develop as the mechanism for ensuring local resource collaboration in line with this strategy. Their corporate plans will provide the benchmark for distributing resources from 1999/2000 onwards - further guidance to DATs will be provided later this year taking forward this challenging remit. This will include more information about the future of centrally provided development funding.
This funding has helped DATs in providing essential local coordination. Most DATs have demonstrated best value in using this resource through an identifiable coordinator, working closely to the DAT Chair, and with a clear role and set of requirements. This coordination role must include coherent representation to the DAT of the views and expertise available from local communities. The Chair of each Drug Action Team will continue to have overall responsibility for the formulation and implementation of corporate plans. Clearly that responsibility, which also entails some accountability to the Coordinator, can only be discharged by individuals with considerable authority and influence within their DAT area. The personal qualities of any individual Chair are far more significant than the agency from which they come.
Representation on DATs - beyond the core agencies of health authorities, education, social services, police, prisons and probation - will continue to be a local matter, with the exception that all DATs should include senior representatives from local authority housing. They should also liaise more closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, key sentencers, the Employment Service, the voluntary sector, Training and Enterprise Councils and Chambers of Commerce. DATs must also actively engage their elected members and Members of Parliament, to ensure that there is no "democratic deficit" to their activity. Developing the representation and function of Drug Reference Groups and other networks in support of the agreed plans of the Drug Action Teams will be a local matter, but will need to ensure effective community involvement, consultation networks and clarity of responsibilities for implementation.
Drug Action Teams or their equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are invited to consider their own development in the light of this strategy, as part of the overall response to the Coordinator by February 1999.
Partnerships
Action against drugs problems cannot be undertaken effectively by any single agency. The performance of all statutory agencies, accountable to central Government Departments, will be scrutinised to assess their progress in forging effective, enduring and practical partnerships with other agencies. The following are being developed as a priority:
- The FCO's Special Representative's international coordination committee will continue under the Chairmanship of the Special Representative to ensure the strongest possible links with our European partners to give continuing effect to the leading role of the UK in the fight against drugs established during our Presidency of the EU from January to June 1998. The UK will also take a visible lead in international coordinated efforts against drugs, through the UN and other mechanisms, where that has a direct contribution to make to this strategy's vision. Our resources will be made available accordingly;
- statutory Inspectorates - each HM Inspectorate will continue to have direct responsibility for monitoring the impact of drugs policies for which their agencies are responsible. The importance of collaborative working across and beyond the Inspectorates is recognised by all of them. A multi-disciplinary review process - involving representatives from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HMI Probation, OFSTED and the Social Services Inspectorate - will be established by December 1998. The importance of monitoring health authorities in this context will need further examination;
- national programme delivery - the role of Government is to facilitate and enable this strategy's implementation through leadership and resource provision. In areas such as publicity, spreading of best practice, project programmes, information collation, and specialist guidance, there is already expertise and experience among a number of organisations, funded by Government or others. In view of its valuable contribution to date, it is planned that there should be some successor arrangements to the Home Office Drugs Prevention Initiative after its current programme ends in March 1999, which will support this strategy and promote community-based drugs prevention across England. Other bodies with a role to play include the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence, Alcohol Concern, the Substance Misuse Advisory Service, the Local Government Drugs Forum and the Health Education Authority. To avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, any work the Government commissions in support of the vision, aims and actions set out in this strategy - contracted to one or more of these agencies - will only be provided on the basis of clear partnership agreements;
- Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - the ACMD has the statutory responsibility to advise Government on the continuing operation of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and to any changes to the law necessary in the light of emerging evidence. The Council will continue to exercise that vital function. In addition, the Council has produced many extremely valuable reports on specific issues - most recently on drugs and the environment which will be published soon. Its composition and focus of work need to be harnessed as closely as possible to the thrust of this long-term strategy and to the work of the Coordinator, and its future work priorities will evolve in that context;
- private sector - the private sector plays a vital role at national, regional and local level in working to combat drug misuse. Many businesses now recognise the commercial benefits and ethical imperatives of involvement in this work. Some - such as BT, Boots, Proctor and Gamble, Marks & Spencer, Royal and Sun Alliance, McDonald's, Lloyds TSB - have already contributed significant resources and commitment to this work. Business in the Community is driving forward a major strategy programme to engage the private sector as systematically as possible - especially through initiatives aimed at young people;
- voluntary sector - much of the energy and innovation in tackling drug misuse, as well as professional and cost-effective delivery, comes from the voluntary sector. We are determined to maximise the contributions that this sector can make set against this strategy. The UK Anti-Drugs Coordinator will convene an annual national stocktake of voluntary sector providers, in concert with the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, to ensure that their interests and contributions to the developing strategy are fully developed and properly used, and that best practice is being implemented;
- the media - responsible and informed coverage of drugs stories can make an important contribution to the strategy's vision. We will engage extensively with national, regional and local media to try to ensure a good level of informed debate, analysis and coverage;
- parents/young people/communities - drugs impact on all of us, our lives, worries and aspirations. We will consult and engage with people in schools, clubs, at parents meetings, with users, at community events and in all locations where there is real concern and real commitment to addressing it.
Audit and Evaluation
Objective and rigorous assessment of the effectiveness of implementing this strategy will be a central feature of its development, and necessary adjustments will be made as a consequence. The key components of this process will be as follows:
- the Coordinator's Annual Report and Plan of Action Against Drug Misuse which will be published every Spring, based on the strategic framework set out here, together with data on progress and proposals for future priorities;
- annual reports from Drug Action Teams in England made to the Coordinator - these will be submitted as part of the corporate planning process at the end of each calendar year. Results and best practice will be incorporated into the Coordinator's Annual Report and Plan;
- the statutory Inspectorates - regular thematic and multi-disciplinary reviews will be published by these bodies;
- quality indicators for the core statutory agencies - these will reflect the fact that the quantitative indicators to be set out need harnessing to more qualitative assessments of progress, which will form part of the DAT reporting process at local level and of an overview from the Coordinator's Annual Report and Plan;
- research and information - this will be regularly assessed against each of the strategy's four aims by the four strategy support groups, as an integral part of the implementation process. They will consult a wide range of external bodies as necessary, and report collectively to the Strategic Steering Group;
- independent strategic evaluation - over the longer term, we will all need to be satisfied that the implementation of this strategy is achieving the most effective results possible. The National Audit Office and the Audit Commission will be engaged in discussions about what might be undertaken over the next decade to fulfil this remit;
- consultations - the continual process of "listening and learning" which the Coordinator and his Deputy have undertaken from day one, will form a more informal, but essential, part of evaluating the strategy. They will continue this consultation for the rest of their appointments, so that progress on the ground - where it really matters - can be properly assessed.
|
