Decision details

The Combatting Drugs Strategy is the 10-year Government Plan produced in December 2021. The strategy sets out how the supply of drugs to criminal gangs and into communities will be addressed, as well as supporting those faced with addiction challenges to be able to live productive lives.

This will be underpinned by a national investment of over £3 billion over the next 3 years and will result in a reduction in drug related crime, harm and deaths. This investment, now known as the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant (DATRIG) will help increase the numbers of people in treatment – including young people, reduce drug and alcohol related deaths and reduce the harm caused by drugs and alcohol to communities in East Sussex.

Projects commissioned through the DATRIG funding stream in 2024/25 have worked well and are contributing to the outcomes outlined above.

There is some additional funding made available for financial year 2025/26, allowing further investment into interventions delivered by Change Grow Live Services Limited.

To approve the portion of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant (DATRIG) additional funding to be used to enhance services delivered by Change Grow Live Services Limited.
(CGL).

An open tendering process was considered in order to distribute this money. However, this cohort contains individuals who will not currently engage with any statutory or Council services, and this severely limits the options open to ESCC for engaging with them.

This is a specialist service, already delivered by CGL, requiring a local hub and the necessary infrastructure, contacts and networks in place to deliver the service and for this level of support, the most appropriate route for delivery will be through the Council’s existing system of provision.

The need to have existing contacts and networks in place means that it would involve significant duplication of costs to the contracting authority to introduce a new Provider. A new Provider would need years to build the relationships necessary to engage effectively with this client group. There is also a danger that a new provider would create a confusing and difficult to navigate treatment system, which would result in a single service user having to access different elements of their treatment from different providers.

This would ultimately create a system that runs a high risk of disengagement and negative outcomes for service users.

This modification needs to be in place and operational at speed due to the timescales attached to the funding.