COMMUNITY SAFETY

National Support Framework. Reducing Reoffending, cutting crime, changing lives (11th March 2010)
The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have published guidance on the new duty for Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) across England and Wales to reduce reoffending. From 1 April 2010 CSPs will have a new duty to formulate and implement a strategy to reduce reoffending by adults and young offenders and probation will become the sixth statutory partner of CSPs.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England and Local Health Boards (LHBs) in Wales are statutory partners on CSPs
and can play a critical role in helping to reduce reoffending by targeting health resources at those individuals in local
communities who need them most. This may or may not include individuals already in contact with the criminal
justice system. Areas where health services have a role in community safety include:

• tackling the misuse of alcohol, drugs and other substances (see section 6, Pathways out of offending), specifically through commissioning and providing appropriate health services
• identifying and providing advice and support for victims of domestic or sexual abuse
• providing health advice or treatment for people who put themselves or others at risk (for example, through their use of drugs or alcohol)
• working with other local partners to help prevent problems occurring in the first place.

Guidance

DRUGS

Tackling problem drug use (4th March 2010)
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) into government action to tackle problem drug use has concluded that there has been good progress in a number of areas, including an increasing number of problem drug users in effective treatment and an increasing number leaving treatment free from dependency.
Report

SUBSTANCE MISUSE

Young People's Drug and Alcohol Treatment at the Crossroads (24th February 2010)
The drug and alcohol treatment system needs to be more flexible if it is to effectively meet the needs of older teenagers and young adults developing substance misuse problems, according to a new DrugScope report.

The charity’s 'Young people’s drug and alcohol treatment at the crossroads 'report draws on consultations with over 150 professionals who support young drug and alcohol users, as well as the views of service users themselves, from across England. It finds that the drugs causing most problems for young people are cannabis and alcohol, with many also using a range of substances including cocaine, ketamine, GBL and ‘legal highs’ such as mephedrone.
Report
Summary
Press Release

Drug and alcohol treatment in the North West of England 2008/09 (15th March 2010)
This publication details the results of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) in the North West of England during 2008/09. The NDTMS was introduced in April 2001 to collect data on all clients in contact with structured treatment services (i.e. high threshold tier 3 and 4 services as defined by the Models of Care, see National Treatment Agency [NTA] 2002). To take into account the recent developments in NDTMS monitoring and reporting, this report provides an overview of the NDTMS data for the region and has been divided into the following sections:

• Problematic Drug Users (PDU) and all drug users (aged over 18) in effective structured drug treatment
• Individuals in contact with structured drug treatment
• Young People (under 18) in contact with structured drug and alcohol treatment
• Individuals in contact with structured alcohol treatment.

Report

DRUGS

UK Drug Situation: UK Focal Point on Drugs. 2009 Edition (2nd March 2010)
The structure and content of this annual report are pre-determined by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) to facilitate comparison with similar reports produced by the other European Focal Points. Ten chapters cover the same subjects each year, and three further chapters, giving in-depth information on selected issues, change from year to year.
Report

Powder cocaine: how the treatment system is responding to a growing problem (1st March 2010)

One in 10 drug users entering treatment in England are seeking help for addiction to powder cocaine, a rise of four per cent in four years, according to new research for the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA).

More than a third of them are aged 18-24, and they are much more likely to come from a broad range of social backgrounds than the typical heroin users who traditionally form the majority of those in treatment.
Press Release
Report

DRUGS

Guidelines and information on anthrax infection for health professionals and drug users (February 2010)
As a result of the 2 cases of anthrax in injecting drug users, the Health Protection Agency have produced a number of resources with advice for health professionals and drug users/workers.
Resources

COMMISSIONING

Improving the health and well-being of people with long-term conditions. world class services for people with long term conditions: information tool for commissioners (14th January 2010)
The main aim of the information tool is to share a common vision of what a good service for people with LTCs, and to provide some practical suggestions for commissioners to help them achieve that vision.
Publication

Benchmark figures for the likely demand for PETCT scans by indication (8th January 2010)
As the key recommendations contained in the Framework for the Development of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Services in England have now been implemented, the framework is no longer current. In order to help Specialised Commissioners in their ongoing planning for PET services, this document sets out benchmark figures for the likely demand for PETCT scans by indication.
Document

Commissioning for recovery. Drug treatment, reintegration and recovery in the community and prisons: a guide for drug partnerships (January 2010)
This document, published by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA), aims to give practical advice on how local commissioners may seek to continually develop effective, evidence-based treatment options with a focus on enabling service users to reintegrate into society and recover as soon as is practicable.
Document

DRUGS

Mephedrone - an update on current knowledge (12th January 2010)

This briefing presents information on the substance Mephedrone (also known as: 4‐MMC, ‘Meow’, ‘M‐Cat’) and other related drugs. This substance has received recent media attention concerning its legality and (largely unconfirmed) speculations around its contribution to the deaths of several young people. Little scientific evidence is available on mephedrone and most information is derived from users themselves or user orientated websites.
Briefing

CHILDREN/YOUNG PEOPLE

Young people and sexual exploitation: an exploration of young people's workers' experiences of providing support in Merseyside (10th December 2009)
This research aimed to explore young people's workers' experience of supporting young people who have been sexually exploited in both broad and subtle ways.

Young people were not consulted for this research and this should be taken into account when considering the following recommendations from the report:

• Young people’s workers should have access to specialist training regarding sexual exploitation and training needs assessments regarding sexual exploitation should be conducted.
• The Sexual Exploitation: Risk Assessment (SERA) should be used to increase young people’s workers’ awareness of the signs that young people may be being sexually exploited or at risk of sexual exploitation.
• Consideration should be given to how the sexual exploitation of young people could be minimised via the introduction of compulsory sex and relationship education as part of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE).
• The perspectives of young people, who have been sexually exploited and live in Merseyside, regarding how young people become sexually exploited and effective methods of support should be obtained. Young people’s well-being should be prioritised throughout the research process.

Report

The Children's Plan Two Years On: a progress report (December 2009)
The Children’s Plan built on the enormous achievements of the Every Child Matters framework and a decade of reform and investment in schools, health and children’s services. Much has been achieved.

In this Two Years On document the Government takes the opportunity to chart the progress that has been made so far and share their next steps.

The Children’s Plan Expert Groups were asked to review the progress that has been made and advise on the challenges ahead, both for Government, and for all those working with children and young people.
Report

The Impact of the Commercial World on Children's Wellbeing: Report of an Independent Assessment (December 2009)
In The Children's Plan the DCSF gave a commitment to commission an independent review of the impact of the commercial world on children's wellbeing. That assessment, conducted by Professor David Buckingham and a panel of experts, is now complete and this report presents their findings.

The assessment was launched with an online call for evidence, which was widely circulated to relevant stakeholder groups. This resulted in a range of submissions from businesses, trade associations, non-government organisations, consumer groups, teacher unions, campaigners, and others.
Report

The Prince's Trust YouGov Youth Index 2010 (4th January 2010)
Older teenagers and young adults who are out of work face poorer health and lower happiness, with one in 10 claiming that unemployment drove them to drugs or alcohol, according to new research.

A Princes Trust study, based on interviews with over 2,000 unemployed 16 to 25 year olds, also found out-of-work young people were more likely to feel ashamed, rejected and unloved. If the current economic downturn mirrors previous recessions these could become ‘permanent psychological scars’, the charity warned.
Survey

COMMISSIONING

Joint Guidance on Development of Local Protocols between Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services and Local Safeguarding and Family Services (3rd November 2009)
This guidance is intended to help commissioners and providers meet existing commitments by providing the latest information and highlighting good practice.
Guidance

Evaluation: Top Tips for Commissioners and Practitioners (October 2009)
This paper, from Greater Manchester Public Health Practice Unit, aims to give commissioners and service providers a framework to enable a more efficient method of carrying out evaluation. It explains the purpose of evaluation, types of evaluation with examples, and discusses service user involvement and engagement
Document

Outline Service Specification: Personalised Care Planning for People with Long Term Conditions (3rd November 2009)
This Outline Service Specification (OSS) has been developed to assist NHS commissioners to put in place appropriate arrangements to ensure people with long-term conditions have informed choice of, and access to, services that best enable them to manage their condition.
Document

Meeting the health needs of children and young people a guide for commissioners (3rd November 2009)
Healthcare for London has published new NHS guidance on improving healthcare for children and young people in London.

The guide recommends:

• establishing paediatric assessment units in all hospitals that have an A&E department to ensure children get the right care as quickly as possible
• healthcare be delivered in the home where appropriate or as close to home as possible reducing unnecessary visits to hospital
• creating multidisciplinary teams of health professionals to deliver care more locally and making best use of specialist skills in the right setting.

Guide

DRUGS

Injection Drug Use and Related Risk Behaviors (29th October 2009)
Combined 2006 to 2008 data, from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, indicate that an annual average of 425,000 persons aged 12 or older (0.17 percent) used a needle to inject heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, or other stimulants during the past year. 13.0 percent of past year injection drug users had used a needle that they knew or suspected someone else had used before them the last time they used a needle to inject drugs, and less than one third (29.0 percent) of them cleaned the needle with bleach prior to their last injection. More than one half (52.8 percent) of past year injection drug users purchased the last needle they used from a pharmacy, and 12.4 percent obtained the needle through a needle exchange program.
Report

Estimating drug harms: a risky business? (October 2009)
Taking a drug is not currently illegal in the UK, and while there have been attempts to make it so, the most reasoned arguments suggest this is not a particularly useful way of reducing harm.

In this edited transcript of the 2009 Eve Saville lecture Professor Nutt discusses drug regulation and control, drugs politics and suggests a way forward on the drugs debate.
Publication

2009 Annual report: the state of the drugs problem in Europe (November 2009)
The report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe presents the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addictions (EMCDDA's) yearly overview of the drug phenomenon. This is an essential reference book for policymakers, specialists and practitioners in the drugs field or indeed anyone seeking the latest findings on drugs in Europe. Published every autumn, the report contains non-confidential data supported by an extensive range of figures.
Report

DRUGS

Shooting Up: Infections among injecting drug users in the United Kingdom 2008. An update: 2009 (23rd October 2009)
This report presents available data on the extent and trends over time of infections among injecting drug users (IDUs) in the UK up to the end of 2008. It includes data on the more severe bacterial infections affecting IDUs, on available markers of HIV and viral hepatitis prevalence and incidence, and on associated risk and protective behaviours.
Report

SUBSTANCE MISUSE

Breaking the Cycle. A three year pilot project (October 2009)
The objectives of this project was to work with families in Cumbria, Derby and Tower Hamlets:

• to reduce their substance use
• improve their parenting skills
• help establish boundaries and structures within the home
• put children's needs first
• encourage adults to improve their economic situation

The overall findings showed that the approach that Breaking the Cycle took contributed to the empowerment, changes and improved the lives of the families who took part.
Summary

DRUGS

DS Daily - new current awareness service (21st September 2009)
A new current awareness service, DS Daily, has been launched by DrugScope. Subscribers get a daily email update of news in the drugs field and/or a weekly email with a summary of the week's news/reports.
Website

DRUGS

Druglink street drug trends survey 2009 (11th September 2009)
A downward trend in the quality of illegal drugs on the UK’s street drug market could be driving changes in patterns of drug use, with users increasingly interchanging or combining a range of low quality drugs, according to DrugScope’s 2009 Street Drug Trends Survey.

The survey compiles and analyses feedback from 70 drug services, police forces, drug action teams and service user groups in 20 towns and cities across the UK. It illuminates patterns in the use and supply of substances to give a snapshot view of current UK street drug trends. The survey also compiles the national average prices of different drugs on the UK street drug market.
Survey
Press Release

DRUGS

Breaking the Link (6th August 2009)
This report, from the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, examines how the drug treatment system is expanding and working closely with criminal justice agencies to ensure that problem drug users in prisons have the same quality of treatment as those in the community. It is also about the efforts being made to ensure that all those who come into treatment through criminal justice routes get the opportunity to recover and reintegrate back into society.
Report

Routes to Recovery (3rd August 2009)
A summary of the latest resources in the Routes to Recovery series is now available. These include good practice guides on diversity, clinical governance and towards successful treatment completion.
Summary

STATISTICS

NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 30 June 2009 (31st July 2009)

Trends in Death Associated with abuse of volatile substances 1971-2007 (23rd July 2009)

STI Annual Data Tables - 2008 (24th July 2009)

Drug Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2008/09 British Crime Survey (27th July 2009)

Dental Earnings and Expenses, England and Wales, 2007/08 (4th August 2009)

Smokefree Legislation Compliance - January-June 2009 (31st July 2009)
Report
Technical annex

Prescriptions dispensed in the community, statistics for 1998 to 2008: England (29th July 2009)

Smoking related behaviour and attitudes 2008-09 (28th July 2009)

Monthly Digest of Statistics - July 2009 (27th July 2009)

Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2008 full report (23rd July 2009)

Genito-Urinary Medicine Access Monthly Monitoring - May 2009 (23rd July 2009)

Direct Access Audiology Waiting Times - May 2009 (22nd July 2009)

STATISTICS

Place Survey: England - Headline Results 2008 (23rd June 2009)

GP Patient Survey 2009 (30th June 2009)

NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 31 May 2009 (26th June 2009)

Cancer waiting times standards: quarter 4 performance (25th June 2009)

Drug Treatment Statistics, England - Monthly Bulletin July 2009 (1st July 2009)

Monthly Digest of Statistics - June 2009 (26th June 2009)

Genito-Urinary Medicine Access Monthly Monitoring - April 2009 (25th June 2009)

Primary Care Trust Prescribing Data - January 2009-March 2009 (25th June 2009)

Road Casualties in Great Britain 2008: Main Results (25th June 2009)

Decennial Life Tables - No 16 (2000-2002) (25th June 2009)

Population Trends 136 - Summer 2009 (25th June 2009)

NHS Staff Earnings January - March 2009 (24th June 2009)

Fatal injuries in the workplace (24th June 2009)

DRUGS

Indications of Public Health in the English Regions 10: Drug Use (10th June 2009)
This tenth in a series of national reports produced for the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) is on drug use. The report contains 46 different indicators of drug use relating to the individual, community and population across all nine English regions; with additional analysis of sub-regional inequalities where possible.
Summary
Report

NDTMS Themed Report - Patterns of mortality amongst individuals in contact with drug treatment services in the North West of England - 5 years of data capture (12th June 2009)
This report details the causes of death of those identified, via the National Drug TreatmentMonitoring System(NDTMS), as having died whilst in contact with structured drug treatment services in the North West of England between 2003/04-2007/08. The identification of the causes ofmortality of those in treatment over five years has provided a rich source of information on the causes of death, both drug and non drug related.
Report

DRUGS

Residential Drug Treatment Services: good practice from the field (June 2009)
This report is based on interviews with the local drug partnerships and services that scored highly in the Tier 4 commissioning and provision theme of the 2007-08 Healthcare Commission and NTA service review. These partnerships and services described their practices, from which a number of key themes emerged. This report describes these themes, for commissioning and providing Tier 4 treatment.
Report
Summary

Measuring the harm from illegal drugs - A summary of the drug harm index 2006 (5th June 2009)
This report summarises the harms of illegal drugs including drug-related crime, community perceptions of drug problems, drug nuisance and the various health consequences that arise from drug abuse.
Summary

Indications of Public Health in the English Regions 10: Drug Use (10th June 2009)
This tenth in a series of national reports produced for the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) is on drug use. The report contains 46 different indicators of drug use relating to the individual, community and population across all nine English regions; with additional analysis of sub-regional inequalities where possible. The Executive Summary is also available as a separate document.
Report

Evaluation of Phase Two of the Liverpool Peer to Peer Project - May 2009 (9th June 2009)
The Peer to Peer Project (P2P) was originally developed by Lighthouse Project (LHP) in 2006, to deliver a programme of training modules to past and current drug users in Liverpool and Sefton, with the main aims of challenging misinformation, increasing knowledge of safe drug using practices and encouraging the dissemination of this information throughout substance using communities. This report presents the evaluation findings of Phase Two of the P2P Project.
Report

STATISTICS

NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 30 April 2009 (5th June 2009)

NHS cancelled operations, quarter ending 31 March 2009 (5th June 2009)

NHS cancer waiting time figures, January to March 2009 (29th May 2009)

Direct Access Audiology Waiting Times - March 2009 (10th June 2009)

NHS Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activities - April 2009 (10th June 2009)

GP Extended Opening Hours - May 2009 (9th June 2009)

Hospital Episode Statistics: Admitted patient care - Provisional Monthly HES for Admitted patient care and outpatient data April - February 2008/09 (9th June 2009)

Public Service Productivity - Health Care Output 1995-2007 (9th June 2009)

Drug Treatment Statistics, England - Monthly Bulletin June 2009 (1st June 2009)

Prescribing by Dentists, 2008: England (29th May 2009)

Genito-Urinary Medicine Access Monthly Monitoring - March 2009 (28th May 2009)

Routine Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) Data Quality Reports - Quarter 2 2008/09 (28th May 2009)

NHS Referral to Treatment Waiting Times - March 2009 (28th May 2009)

Community Care Statistics: Referrals, Assessments and Packages of Care for Adults - 2007-08: National Report and Councils with Adult Social services Responsibilities (28th May 2009)

Health Statistics Quarterly - Statistical Bulletin: Gestation-specific infant mortality and biological factors among babies born in England and Wales in 2006 (28th May 2009)

Health Statistics Quarterly - No. 42, Summer 2009 (28th May 2009)

Monthly Digest of Statistics - May 2009 (28th May 2009)

Quarterly Conceptions to Women aged under 18, England and Wales - Q1 2008 (28th May 2009)