Drugs: Review urges more funding for addiction treatments in England

The government has been urged to boost spending on recovery services and treatment for drug addicts by an independent review.

The report by Dame Carol Black said cuts have left services "on their knees" and urged an extra £552m investment over five years in England.

It also advised a £15m boost towards jobs support for those in treatment.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said ministers would "look closely" at the recommendations.

The government has announced it will follow one of the recommendations, to set up a new cross-government unit on tackling drug misuse.

Mr Javid said it would ensure "strong collaboration" on the issue, which is the shared responsibility of several different departments.

The report is the second part of a two-stage review originally commissioned by Mr Javid in February 2019, when he was home secretary.

Dame Carol, a medic and government health adviser between 2006 and 2016, has previously said she believes drug addicts have been treated differently to people with other illnesses.

The first part, published in February last year, estimated the drugs trade in England cost society about £19bn a year.

The second part, which focuses on treatment services, found "vital services" have been cut back, with support workers "depleted" and "demoralised".

Dame Carol said this included specialist services for young people, detox treatment in hospitals, and rehab programmes in specialist facilities.

She also urged more action to divert drug users away from the courts system, adding that too many are "cycling in and out of prison" without recovery.

Lena Larsen from Merseyside says she became addicted to heroin "within a few days" after she started taking it aged 19.

The 46-year old says she managed to stop taking the drug in 2002 without going through any recovery treatment, but later started using again after entering an abuse relationship.

"Although I'd stopped the drugs, I hadn't changed anything," she says. "For eight years I managed, but I'd not changed."

She adds she had "never heard of recovery" before a friend took her to a women's refuge and she started attending a specialist centre.

She adds that two and a half years later, her life is "so much different from what it was". She recently came off methadone, a heroin substitute, and also volunteers at the centre, helping other problem drug users.

"You need to engage in something, whatever route it is," she says.

"Putting the drugs down, that's easy, but you need to get involved in whatever it is… putting the drugs down isn't enough."

Dame Carol added a recent pledge to spend an extra £80m on treatments in England was welcome, but should lead to further spending pledges this autumn.

She added that high levels of drug addiction were fuelling "costly social problems", including homelessness and rising demand on children's social care.

"The government faces an unavoidable choice: invest in tackling the problem or keep paying for the consequences," she said.

Dame Carol's review also recommended:

She also said the current system, where local authorities commission treatment services, had led to a "fractured" approach, with "virtually no accountability or recognised standards".

The Local Government Association, which represents council leaders in England, said funding for treatment services has "not kept pace with demand".

Drug-related deaths in England and Wales reached their highest level since records began in 2019, the last year for which figures are available.

This marks a 52% increase in drug-related deaths in the past 10 years.

In total, there were 4,393 drug poisoning deaths, of which about two thirds (2,883) were related to "drug misuse," according to the Office for National Statistics. The rest include accidents and suicides.