Annex B
NATIONAL AND
LOCAL DELIVERY
OF THE
STRATEGY
B1 At the national level the Home Secretary
has overall responsibility for delivery of the strategy.
B2 The Prime Minister has established a
ministerial sub-committee for tackling drug misuse—DA(D).
Its members are the: Home Secretary (Chairman); Secretary of State
for Health; the Chief Secretary, Treasury; the Secretary of State
for Education and Skills; the Minister of State, Cabinet Office
(Barbara Roche); and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Ben Bradshaw). The Financial
Secretary, Treasury is invited to attend as appropriate given
his responsibility for HMC&E. Its terms of reference are:
"to co-ordinate the Government's national and international
policies for tackling drugs misuse and report as necessary to
the Committee on Domestic Affairs".
B3 The Home Secretary, supported by the
Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Education
and Skills, takes the lead on delivery of the activity in support
of the target for young people.
B4 The Home Secretary also has lead responsibility
for delivery of the activity in support of the target for communities.
B5 The Secretary of State for Health has
lead responsibility for delivery of the activity in support of
the target for treatment.
B6 HMC&E supported by other departments
and agencies is in the lead in delivering activity in support
of the target on reducing availability. The Financial Secretary,
given his responsibility for HMC&E, has lead responsibility
for delivery of the activity in support of the target on reducing
availability.
Linking national and local delivery
B7 The PSA targets are by their nature high
level statements of strategy delivery. A key role in ensuring
their delivery—and reflecting the genuinely cross-departmental
nature of activities underpinning them—is played by Service
Delivery Agreement targets. These form an integral part of Departments'
own Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) and as such form a bridge
between the outcome-focused strategy-wide PSAs and delivery by
departments and their local agencies on the ground.
B8 Examples include, in the case of the
Young People's target, measures to improve the effectiveness with
which local agencies (such as the police and probation services,
health authorities and schools) co-ordinate their work and implement
best practice; in the case of Communities the roll-out and maintenance
of Arrest Referral Schemes and Drug Treatment and Testing Orders
(DTTOs); the piloting of drugs testing; for Treatment, the addressing
of performance variations within each of the main types of treatment;
and reducing drug-related deaths by 20 per cent by 2004; and for
Availablity, increasing the proportion of Class "A"
drugs targeted on the UK which are seized, increasing disruptions
of organised drugs smuggling gangs and forfeiture of assets.
Local Delivery
B9 Drug Action Teams were set up in 1995
under the White Paper Tackling Drugs Together (Cm 2846—published
May 1995) which recognised the need for "co-ordinated
local action, building upon existing statutory and operational
responsibilities for tackling drug misuse and tailored to local
circumstances and priorities".
B10 Drug Action Teams have the responsibility
for delivering the Government's anti-drugs programmes at a local
level. Drug Action Teams do not have statutory status but this
is under review. From 2002 will report annually to Home Office
Ministers on progress for the previous year and their plans for
the year ahead. Drug Action Teams are financially accountable
for the large sums of money which come to them eg via pooled budgets.
B11 149 Drug Action Teams operate locally.
Their structure follows unitary, metropolitan, or London Borough
local authority boundaries. They link with other locally-based
partnerships: 354 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (in
England); 154 Youth Offending Teams; and Local Strategic Partnerships
which are aligned with local authority boundaries—like Drug
Action Teams.
B12 Drug Action Teams bring together senior
representatives of all the local agencies involved in tackling
the misuse of drugs, including the health authority, local authority,
police, probation, social services, education and youth services,
and the voluntary sector. As senior figures, they should be advised
by Drug Reference Groups, made up of those with closer day to
day involvement with action against drugs problems.
B13 Drug Action Teams also work closely
with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to help the police
and communities tackle local drug problems and associated crime.
Following the launch of the Communities Against Drugs initiative
(see 3.6-3.9), Drug Action Teams will be agreeing strategies with
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to use the Communities
Against Drugs money in the most appropriate way to disrupt
drugs markets, tackle drug related crime and disorder and to strengthen
the ability of communities to resist drugs and to act against
drug misuse.
B14 Drug Action Teams are supported by the
Home Office's Drug Prevention Advisory Service (DPAS) which provides
a range of expert services which are developed and provided in
response to Drug Action Teams' specific needs. DPAS' customer
services fall into three distinct categories: providing information;
supporting partnerships; and assessing performance. At regional
level, DPAS sits alongside Government Offices in the Regions and
works closely with Regional Crime Directors (supporting Crime
and Disorder Reduction Partnerships) and individual Youth Offending
Team managers (there is no regional Youth Justice Board presence).
The National Treatment Agency will also have a regional presence,
working closely with the Drug Prevention Advisory Service.
Devolved Administrations
B15 Although most activities aimed at tackling
drug misuse are devolved, it is clearly important that co-operation
and, where appropriate, co-ordination take place against the threat
posed by drugs to the UK. Anti-drug strategies have been launched
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to deal with drug-related
problems specific to them. All three strategies reflect the same
four aims as the UK strategy, relating to young people, communities,
treatment and availability, but with specific objectives and action
priorities tailored to the particular problems and circumstances
in each country.
Northern Ireland
B16 Drug Strategy for Northern Ireland was
launched in August 1999.
Scotland
B17 Strategies and action plans to tackle
drug misuse are being implemented in Scotland. The Scottish Executive's
Drugs Action Plan, published in May 2000, set out the Executive's
actions in support of the implementation of Scotland's 1999 drugs
misuse strategy Tackling drugs in Scotland: Action in Partnership.
Wales
B18 The strategy Tackling Substance Misuse
in Wales: A Partnership Approach was launched in May 2000.
It is an eight year strategy to co-incide with the timeframe of
Tackling drugs to build a better Britain.
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