DISPARITY IN NATIONAL FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS FOR DRUG AND ALCOHOL SERVICES

A POSITION STATEMENT

In 1998 the government issued their 10 year national strategy for addressing drug related problems, “Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain”. This strategy has received increasingly generous funding to enable services to meet the challenging directives on treatment waiting times for primary drug referrals.

Under the current spending plans, the pooled budget will continue to provide increasing revenue for the development of drug services and generous allocations have been proposed over the coming years.

The net result of this is that a growing disparity is emerging between services for drugs and alcohol cases. Alcohol treatment has received no specific central government funding in recent years, and despite energetic lobbying of the government by representative organisations and individuals, there is still no published strategy for alcohol treatment and thus no financial investment.

The Prime Ministers Strategy Unit is in the process of forming an Alcohol Project Team (July 2002) that will undertake an extensive consultation with stakeholders to estimate levels of, and response to alcohol related harm. However, this process is unlikely to translate into expanded services in the near future. We are left with the challenge on managing “combined” services throughout the county, which have, for the most part, made little distinction between drug and alcohol cases and have responded on the basis of clinical risk and priority. The differential funding streams for drugs and alcohol impact awkwardly with this service system and lead to a growing gap which threatens to produce “two tier services” tasked with rapid response to drug referrals at the expense of alcohol referrals for which there are no published target response times.

This situation needs to be acknowledged, understood and managed. Alcohol-related problems are increasing as population consumption increases. It is difficult therefore, to reconcile this clear demand with apparently dwindling supply of services specifically for alcohol. It is an issue, which is keenly, felt by key referring agencies, such as Primary Health care Teams and the Community Mental Health Teams, and if an open and transparent debate is not initiated, may lead to confusion.

The Drug Action Team is seeking to clarify the issue and generate the debate so that all key stakeholders can offer their views and contribute to the process of finding solutions, if only in the interim period until a funded national strategy emerges.

The DAT will want to gather views form as a wide constituency of stakeholders as possible so that views can be sent to the Strategy Unit who are considering this matter.

The DAT has set aside the 28th November for a stakeholder event at which the key concerns will be aired and discussed. In the meantime there is an opportunity for any stakeholder to write to the DAT partnership expressing views about the funding for alcohol services. These will be discussed as part of the stakeholder event and will also form part of the composite response to the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit.

Please submit any comments or views to:

Phillipa Gibson DAAT Co-ordinator

The manufacture, sale, distribution and purchase of alcohol is mainly controlled by the 1964 Licensing Act.

There are different licences governing the sale of alcohol. Full 'on licenses' are granted to pubs and clubs and mean alcohol can be drunk on the premises. 'Off licenses' are granted to off- licenses, shops and supermarkets where alcohol cannot be consumed on the premises. 'Restaurant licenses' permit the sale of alcohol and consumption on the premises if accompanied by a meal. Licensing laws also restrict the times at which alcohol can be sold and consumed.

There are also rather complex laws about the age at which people can drink alcohol:

• It is an offence to give alcohol to a child under 5 years old.
• Children of any age can go into parts of pubs that are set aside for meals or as family rooms.
• Children aged over 14 years can go into pubs unaccompanied by adults but cannot be served alcohol until they are 18 years old.
• Young people are not allowed to drink alcohol in a bar or buy alcohol in a pub or off licence until they are 18 years old.
• 16 year olds can buy and drink beer or cider (but not spirits) in a pub but only if they are having a meal.
• There are slightly different rules in different parts of the UK In Northern Ireland, for example, nobody can enter any part of a pub if they are under 18 years old.

Anyone aged under 18 years old who tries to buy alcohol can be fined but this rarely happens. A licensed vendor (pub landlord, off licence proprietor etc.) who knowingly sells alcohol to young people aged under 18 years can be fined and could lose their licence. Licenses have to be approved by magistrates and the police can object if they think vendors are not fit to sell alcohol. Unlicensed 'home brewing' of beers, ciders and wines (but not spirits) is permitted but it is illegal to sell these products.

Under the Public Order Act 1986, it is an offence to possess or carry alcohol on trains, coaches or minibuses travelling to or from certain sporting events. Police also have powers to confiscate alcohol from under 18s, if they are drinking on the streets. Some cities, such as Bath and Coventry, have introduced by-laws making it an offence to drink alcohol on the streets in city centre areas at any age. It is an offence to be drunk and disorderly in a public place, including within licensed premises. It is also an offence to drive whilst unfit to do so because of drink. Anything more than 80mg of alcohol in every 100ml of blood is over the legal limit. This usually works out at about two and a half pints of normal strength beer for males but varies from person to person and is usually less for females.