The government should provide dedicated funding for the operation of Combating Drugs Partnerships (CDPs), says a new report by independent research agency Verian for the Home Office. Lack of dedicated funding is the most challenging barrier facing CDPs, it states, with partners instead expected to fund their activities through existing budgets.
police force areas did not ‘earmark resources for drug-related enforcement activity’ the report states.
CDPs, which are overseen by the Joint Combating Drugs Unit (JCDU), were established to coordinate the delivery of the ten-year drug strategy. Verian partnered with NatCen and CECAN to evaluate their application of the ‘whole-system approach’ to tackling drugs, looking at how multi-agency working was being implemented at strategic and operational level, the key challenges and other issues – via interviews with stakeholders and service users, surveys, workshops and an evidence review.
There are more than 100 CDPs across England, typically made up of local authorities, criminal justice, treatment organisations and other partners like the NHS, Jobcentre plus, and housing services. However they ‘varied significantly’ in their structures, priorities, leadership and partnerships, the report says.
The lack of dedicated funding could lead to difficulties in properly engaging partners like the NHS and PCCs, the document states, while other challenges included data sharing between organisations, leading to evidence gaps and lack of strategic alignment. While stakeholders overall were ‘enthusiastic about CDPs and believed that the joined-up approach had a positive impact’ on meeting local needs and delivering the drug strategy, other challenges identified by the research included difficulties in finding ways to address ‘less visible harms’ – such as drug use in communities that experienced additional stigma and discrimination, and the impact of drugs on families. Lack of capacity in wider parts of the system – such as mental health and housing – were also a challenge for CDPs, it says.
It was important to note that while local authorities received ring-fenced funding from OHID to improve treatment in addition to money from the public health grant, the funding for police force areas was ‘embedded within broader allocations and does not specify or earmark resources for drug-related enforcement activity’ the report states. Having ‘strong pre-existing relationships and structures’ was the most important factor in mitigating these challenges, the report states.
The report’s other recommendations include customisable templates for data sharing agreements, forums for sharing best practice, and regular collection and monitoring of data to improve accountability and identify areas for improvement. The CDPs themselves, meanwhile, should try to improve awareness of their activities in the community, reflect on their leadership structures and the formalisation of partnerships, and clarify membership and representation to make sure they involved lived experience representatives as well as mental health, health and housing services. They should also identify areas for further collaboration, including co-location of services, it said.
However, more than two-thirds of CDPs reported improved collaboration in identifying people at risk, with just over 60 per cent stating that new treatment opportunities had been enabled through joint working. Almost all of the CDP representatives who responded to the survey believed that the creation of CDPs ‘had led to improvements in partnership working’.
Process evaluation of Combating Drugs Partnerships available here