Agenda item

This paper introduces the York Drug and Alcohol Strategic Priorities for 2025 / 26. These were agreed at the Drug and Alcohol Partnership Board in March 2025.  Each priority has a lead within a relevant organisation. The Health and Wellbeing Board are asked to support the priorities and consider how as partners they can support the delivery of the outcomes.

The item was introduced by the Director of Public Health and presented by the Public Health Specialist Practitioner (Advanced).

The Director of Public Health explained that this report followed on from a national review of services surrounding drug and alcohol provision in 2021 which gave local authorities license to set up “combating drugs partnerships” which was locally represented by the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership (YDAP), of which he was the Senior Responsible Officer.

He also noted that in the past decade there had been a move from treatment to recovery-based systems when dealing with addiction.

The Public Health Specialist Practitioner (Advanced) presented the report and summarised the strategic priorities agreed at the Drug and Alcohol Partnership Board in March 2025.  Each priority has a lead within a relevant organisation. She noted that a fourth outcome (mental health) had been added this year.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to support the priorities but also to consider how individual agencies within the wider health and well-being area could each offer support.

The board asked about the “What’s the Score” conversation tool, used by YDAP; what was the purpose of it and how was it used?

The Public Health Specialist Practitioner (Advanced) answered that this toolkit had been developed by their current provider Change Grow Live as part of their young people’s service – and it was a type of scratchcard which helps user’s establish their level of substance usage and whether this may be problematic. The intention was to roll this out fully to professionals who work with young people such as teachers and youth workers.

The board asked about the aim to increase the numbers of young people seeking support for substance misuse – the Public Health Specialist Practitioner (Advanced) said the numbers, set out nationally, were quite ambitious but were being delivered. These had started out at around mid-20s but were now approaching nearer 50.

The board asked how the partnership could work out where they need to be to capture any young people that weren’t coming forward to seek support?

The Director of Public Health answered that regarding unmet need indicators for drugs and alcohol versus the expected number of people seen in treatment, there was about a 50% gap for substances and 80% for alcohol in the adult population currently, so on this basis he would expect to see four times as many adults seeking help for alcohol treatment and using a similar methodology he would consider 20-30 young people citywide to be a much lower than anticipated number of young people seeking help.

The board asked whether there was capacity to deal with an increase in demand for support with drug and alcohol misuse among young people.

The Public Health Specialist answered that there was capacity to support more children and to provide early intervention, which would also avert further need for these people as adults.

The Director of Public Health added that with the old model Children's Services was more a wing of the service as a whole, and was a smaller element. With the new provider there was a specific gateway offered to children, which he felt put the local authority in a much better place.

The board praised the report’s specific acknowledgement of the importance of dual diagnosis. It was noted that on this topic the report did not cover the issue of neurodiversity and self-medicating to “normalise” for individuals.

The presenter acknowledged this point, and said there was a first prevention group later in May where she would bring this up. She would also discuss the prevalence of self-medication without a coexisting mental health condition.

The board raised the issue of gender specific pathways, noting that there was no discussion of domestic violence in the report.

The presenter accepted this and said while this issue had not been a priority for the year, the link between drugs and alcohol and domestic violence was recognised and work was being undertaken by her colleague in Public Health, Hannah Hall, on the Joint Domestic Abuse Strategy.

The board asked whether high risk individuals would trigger an automatic referral from the courts or prison service regarding self-medication linked to domestic violence or would they need to manually request a referral themselves?

The presenter stated that she believed a referral would have to be made in this instance but she would follow up and report back to the board.

The Chair responded that situations concerning very high-risk individuals would automatically trigger a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC).

The Director of Public Health suggested the board could confirm that the commissioned drugs and alcohol provider and commissioned domestic abuse provider were collaborating and talking to one another, because these were coexistent issues where two referrals may may be helpful but they must be coordinated referrals in which the teams talk to one another.

The Director of Public Health also requested that an action be noted that the board would like to assess some of these priorities and the data behind them to discuss measurable changes at a future meeting.

The board asked what work had been done around attitudes and behaviours surrounding adults buying alcohol for young people to take to gatherings, and the “normalising” effect this has.

The presenter acknowledged this, conceding this was a wider, national issue addressed to some extent in Personal Social Health Education (PSHE)  lessons under the national curriculum and would form part of the focus of the Children and Young People’s group taking place later that month.

The board asked about nitazenes/synthetic opioids being a problem in York that had contributed to several deaths in York in recent years, and how the process for dealing with this was changing.

The Public Health Specialist said that the North Yorkshire Drug Analysis Program (NYDAP) a harm reduction exercise was currently being undertaken together with the University of York, North Yorkshire Council and North Yorkshire Police. This gave a much faster return on testing any sample of drug paraphernalia (if not needed for evidence) and this could be tested at the university. A turnaround of 12 hours between getting a sample and putting out a drug alert could now be achieved. She would be happy to come back and talk about nitazenes further.

The board asked if this scheme was already taking place elsewhere or was York pioneering this?

The presenter answered that while York had not pioneered this scheme, it was close behind those that did; city size in York had allowed the scheme to be rapidly put in place. She advised that she could also provide the board with national statistics to show the wider outcomes for harm reduction.

The board thereby

Resolved:

i.      To note and support the 2025/26 priorities of the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership.

ii.     To consider how the priorities outlined are in line with wider HWBB priorities and how individual agencies can support this.

Reason:     To keep the Board updated on the work of the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership and their Strategies.