Eight areas in
England will test innovative new ways to help drug addicts recover
and achieve a sustained recovery, Public Health Minister Anne
Milton announced today.
The areas have been selected following a competition to pilot a
Payment by Results (PbR) scheme set out in the new Drugs Strategy
2010. It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to go further,
faster on improving the recovery of adults by incentivising the
system around outcomes.
This will mean that providers will no longer be paid simply on
process activity but on the outcomes they achieve - such as being
free of dependence or back in work. This will mean a renewed focus
on giving clients the support they need to tackle the very
individual problems they face in integrating more fully in society.
The pilot sites will now start work on designing systems that
reward providers who support individuals to recover from their
dependence by using clear outcomes for the individual, their
families and communities.
The successful pilot sites which have been invited to pilot the
scheme are: Bracknell Forest, Enfield, Kent, Lincolnshire,
Oxfordshire, Stockport, Wakefield and Wigan.
Each of the successful areas put forward innovative ideas for new
payment models for drugs recovery that will take forward the PbR approach.
Anne Milton said:
"Drug addiction is often the result of a tragic
cycle of family breakdown, poverty and crime. It has a corrosive
effect on individuals and society.
“While we are working hard to prevent people using drugs in
the first place. We are determined to get people off drugs and
help them stay off. This is why we placed recovery at the heart of
our strategy.
“Paying those organisations that provide drug recovery
services for the outcomes they achieve is part of this. I have
been so impressed by the incredible enthusiasm and desire that
exists to move toward more innovative approaches to help people
get free from drugs and get back into being part of society.
“I am confident that the local areas selected will help show
how this can and should work in practice.”
Later this month the successful pilot sites will start work with
the cross government PbR drug recovery project team to begin
co-designing the detail of the pilots, with the aim that they are
up and running from October 2011.
Notes to Editors
1. For further information contact the Department of Health press
office on 020 7210 5221
2. The Drugs Strategy 2010, can be downloaded here: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-drugs/drugs/drug-strategy/drug-strategy-2010
3. The pilot sites have been invited to take part by letter and
DH are in the process of receiving their responses
4. Work will begin immediately to co-design the detail of the
pilots in partnership with the successful areas with the aim to go
live in October.
5. We will put in place an independent evaluation of the pilots.
An Invitation to Tender for this work will be issued shortly.
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk