Voice on the stairwell
‘It’s Important that our
Service Users inform our
services,’
said Lord Victor
Adebowale, at the recent
‘official’ launch of Collective
Voice at the House of Lords.
The group of voluntary
sector organisations came
together to provide a
coherent voice from the drug
and alcohol treatment sector.
‘We’ve certainly got our
work cut out.
When the
environment gets tough, we
can retrench, take a
defensive approach – or
come together and represent
the interests of people we
seek to help,’ said Karen
Biggs, the group’s chair.
‘We knew we were about
to face a reduction in public
spend but the needs of our
service users are high,’ she said.
‘As providers we had never worked together
before... Yes we fight like cat and dog over tenders –
but on important stuff we’re all agreed. We’ve proved
we speak with a collective voice.’
The group’s chair Paul Hayes
agreed
that the objective
was to improve the lives of
service users: ‘We’re not set
up to just exist,’ he said.
‘We’re set up because real
things need to be done.’ This
included trying to influence
the drug strategy, the Dame
Carol Black review, and the
spending review.
‘The drug strategy is still not published and we’re
concerned it might edge away from 2010 strategy –
we won’t know until it’s published,’ he said. ‘There are
people in government that believe in abstinence only –
and that methadone is the spawn of the devil.
‘Reductions in public health grants mean it will be
challenging,’ he added. ‘But there’s widespread
acknowledgement in government that if they want the
benefits that accrue from drug treatment in tackling
crime, they need to invest.’
The group needed to ‘keep up pressure’ and also
engage in other conversations, such as with Mind, the
Royal College of Psychiatrists and the NHS, he said, and
to pay as much attention to alcohol as drugs.
Hayes emphasised that the group was ‘not
pretending to represent service users, but needs to be
informed by them and have the service users’ take in a
meaningful and responsive way.’
‘We cannot do everything and we don’t want to
spend time reading perfectly crafted response
documents,’ said Hayes. ‘It’s the two-minute
conversation on the stairwell that makes a difference.
We need to be able to grandstand – but we also need
to be able to have a quiet word.
‘In the end we will be judged by: is the world a
better place for Service Users? Is the taxpayer getting
better value for money? Is there still a drug treatment
sector – and are we all willing to work in it?’
Collective Voice is made up of Addaction, Blenheim,
cgl, Cranstoun, DISC, Lifeline Project, Phoenix Futures,
Swanswell and Turning Point.
April 2016 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 15
The launch of Collective Voice saw the group emphasising their commitment to service users
Find out what help is out there:
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE SECURED THE FUNDING?
We’re excited about the opportunity but we also
recognise the effort that’s going to be required to
make this a reality.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ESH?
This funded initiative
will give us the opportunity to expand our current peer-
led support. It will give us the ability to bring clients
into a safe and peaceful environment allowing us to
work more closely with them and their families to focus
on their sustained recovery in the local community.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR SERVICE USERS IN
WARWICKSHIRE?
People with addiction problems in
Warwickshire who have been assessed as needing drug
and alcohol rehabilitation support would currently get a
placement approved at a rehab unit somewhere outside
of the county because we don’t have one locally. While
the clients are away for around three months they build
up a network of mutual support and many of the
clients actually relocate because they’re comfortable in
the recovery network that they’ve established. The
problem is that they do not return to Warwickshire with
their own recovery, and we lose the value of their
recovery and the enthusiasm they have to help others.
Feedback from service users who had been out of
county to a residential rehab and who came back to
Warwickshire was that they actually felt there was no
continuity for themselves or their families when they
returned. A local residential rehab facility in Warwickshire
will provide that continuity and stability for clients and
families during their stay and, perhaps more importantly,
when the clients leave the rehab it can provide the local
aftercare and support to sustain their recovery.
HAVE YOU IDENTIFIED A SITE YET?
We have looked at
several sites, mainly residential properties, but we’re
looking for somewhere with land and potential to
expand the facility so we can eventually provide other
activities and premises for clients to start their own
small businesses.
WHEN COULD THE CENTRE BE UP AND RUNNING?
It
will take several months to complete a purchase and
we then have to go through the process to register
with the Care Quality Commission, so it could actually
be six months or more before we are operational.
Were you successful in your capital bid? Tell us your
plans for the money – email
RECOVERY CAPITAL
New government
funding of £10m has
just been awarded
to drug and alcohol
services ‘committed
towards improving
recovery outcomes’
across England –
capital funding that was distributed by
PHE via local authorities.
ESH Community Works were among the
successful bidders and have been
awarded £545,000 to purchase property
for a local, peer-supported residential
rehabilitation unit. CEO
Paul Urmston
gives their reaction.
TreaTmenT services
‘We cannot do everything and
we don’t want to spend time
reading perfectly crafted
response documents...
It’s the two-minute
conversation on the stairwell
that makes a difference.’
