Written Statement - Working Together to Reduce Harm - Substance Misuse Annual Report 2010

As Minister for Health and Social Services I am pleased to present the Substance Misuse Annual Progress Report.

Last year, when the lead responsibility for the substance misuse agenda came back to me as Minister for Health and Social Services, I was concerned to ensure that the arrangement for the new Local Health Boards would enable them to play their full part in tackling this agenda.  I reported that my key objective was to strengthen the leadership role of NHS bodies and Public Health Wales in the substance misuse agenda, and to enhance their links with the Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), who continue to have the statutory responsibility for tackling substance misuse at the local level.  I am pleased at the progress that has been made by partners to achieve this.  The new Substance Misuse Area Planning Boards have been established in all seven Health Board areas and each have prioritised work plans in place.  I am particularly pleased that service users have a voice on each of these key Boards. 

I said last year, and indeed have said in the past, this is a challenging agenda and one which we will never be able to tick a box saying “job done”.  However, we must not lose sight of the great strides that have been made which are clearly evidenced in this and past reports.     In this report we demonstrate progress on three of the commitments given in One Wales, our agenda for improving the quality of life of Welsh citizens, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

• We committed to increasing the provision of counselling.  We have done that through investing in the training of our substance misuse workforce to enhance their skills.
• We said we would consider harm reduction pilots being carried out in England.  Our expert body, the Advisory Panel on Substance Misuse has looked at this and their advice is contained in this report.
• We also committed to increasing the provision of residential rehabilitation places.  Again, we have achieved this by investing year on year resulting in 277 more people accessing these services since 2008-09.

The Welsh Assembly Government is clearly achieving what we set out to do to address this complex agenda. Year on year, we have invested significantly to increase access to services, and the Annual Progress Report contains the detail of the range of major initiatives we have developed and supported to improve the quality of substance misuse services. .   

Our partners have worked hard and we have come a long way in a very short time.   Many of the issues that need tackling now lie at the local level, such as drop out rates from treatment and waiting times.  When individuals get into treatment and stay in treatment – it works.  The emerging findings of our Treatment Effectiveness measure confirm this.   It is crucial therefore, that the Community Safety Partnerships work effectively together and with other partnerships to address drop out rates form treatment and waiting times as a priority and ensure that all of the money invested is targeted properly, and that services are designed to encourage individuals to start and, more importantly, complete treatment.    

For our part, we will continue to press the UK Government to strengthen the legislative framework on the pricing and availability of alcohol.  We will also continue to support partners in the challenges that lie ahead in sustaining and building upon our achievements to help some of the most vulnerable in our communities.