Health and Wellbeing Board	7 May 2025
Report of Peter Roderick, Director of Public Health, City of York Council

Update on the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership: Strategic Priorities 2025 / 26

Summary

1. 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.

Background

2. The government’s 10-year strategy ‘From Harm to Hope’ (2021) lays out several aspirations which aim to reduce the harm caused by drug and alcohol use nationally.

3. Local delivery of this strategy has been in progress since its publication, including:

i. the establishment of the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership in 2022, chaired by the Director of Public Health, which reports its activities through into the Health and Wellbeing Board

ii. the development of a Health Needs Assessment for drugs and alcohol

iii. the additional resourcing of the prevention and treatment system through the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Grant, which in 2025/26 is £450,444.

Main/Key Issues to be Considered

4.  Drugs and alcohol continue to present major issues for health and wellbeing in York, leading to early illness and death as well as hospital admissions, dual diagnosis issues together with mental ill health, as well as a large range of consequent health issues and conditions.

5. They also present a city issue, and interact considerably with significant issues around housing, criminal justice, community cohesion, employment and safety.

6. Our approach to supporting people with drug and alcohol issues has developed significantly over the last decades, from an emphasis on treatment and clinical services, to a much greater focus on recovery. The principle behind recovery is that a human’s journey out of addiction is much more likely to be successful if they are part of a strong recovery community, which emphasises connection, a new recovery-based social life and as well as empowerment. In York this community has been going for many years, with cafes, meetings, activities, support and social events happening most days of the week, including at the recently opened York Community Recovery Hub on Wellington Row. This is the ultimate destination we are hoping for people in York who use substances, and the longer term solution which we believe will reduce the societal effects of substances.

7. National guidance requires a Combatting Drugs Partnership in every Local Authority, and in York we have called this the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership. It includes police, council, treatment, NHS, probation, DWP and voluntary sector partners.

8. The annexe presents the 2025 / 2026 Drug and Alcohol priorities for York, which contribute to the wider strategic direction and the national 10 years Drugs Strategy ‘from harm to hope’. The national strategy specifies that local areas are required to have a strong partnership that brings together all relevant organisations and key individuals and provide a single point of contact for central government. In York, the Drug and Alcohol Partnership has proactive oversight of the implementation of planned priorities of the strategy ensuring that local organisations work together and jointly agree provision and areas to be improved.

9. The National Combating Drugs Outcomes Framework provides a structure for the metrics for monitoring. These include 6 outcomes that form the base for York’s annual priorities:

        Strategic outcomes:

·Reduce drug use

·Reduce Drug-Related crime

·Reduce drug related deaths and harm

        Intermediate outcomes:

·Reduce drug supply

·Increase engagement in treatment

·Improve recovery outcomes

·Improve mental health outcomes

Consultation

10. The priorities were considered at board level following various reports and discussions to decide the focus for 2025.  Each priority area was considered with relevant stakeholders prior to agreeing on 2-3, the leads from the priority areas were asked to decide on 2 to 3 to ensure focus to enable action.

Strategic/Operational Plans

11. The Council Plan 2023-2027 includes an ambition to ‘Support more people on their journey of recovery from addiction, including through smoking cessation services and our recovery-based drug and alcohol model’.

        Implications.

· Financial – The York Drug and Alcohol Service is commissioned by Public Health within CYC and a full procurement process was followed to contract Change, Grow, Live to meet a service specification that also supports these priorities.  The Drug and Alcohol Treatment, Recovery and Improvement Grant (DATRIG) also enables funding to support the priorities.

· Human Resources (HR) – There are no HR implications of this report

· Equalities – People with addictions are often one of society’s more marginalised groups, suffer from significant stigma,

· Legal – There are no Legal implications of this report

· Crime and Disorder – The aim of the paper and strategic outcomes supports a reduction of crime and disorder in the city

· Information Technology (IT) – There are no IT implications of this report

· Property - There are no Property implications of this report

        Recommendations

The Health and Wellbeing Board are asked to:

a. Note and support the 2025/26 priorities of the York Drug and Alcohol Partnership

b.  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.

Contact Details

Author:	Chief Officer Responsible for the report:
Author’s name: Peter Roderick Title: Director of Public Health Dept Name: Public Health Organisation name: CYC Tel No. Co-Author’s Name Title: Ruth Hine Dept Name: Public Health Organisation name: CYC Tel No.	Chief Officer’s name Job Title Organisation name Tel No
	Report Approved	X	Date	28 April 2025
	Chief Officer’s name Title
	Report Approved	X	Date	28 April 2025
Specialist Implications Officer(s) List information for all i.e Financial Officer’s name Job Title Dept Name Organisation name Tel No.
Wards Affected:  List wards affected or tick box to indicate all [most reports presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board will affect all wards in the city – however there may be times that only a specific area is affected and this should be made clear]					All	tick
For further information please contact the author of the report

Background Papers:

All relevant background papers must be listed here.  A ‘background paper’ is any document which, in the Chief Officer’s opinion, discloses any facts on which the report is based and which has been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report

Either the actual background paper or a link to the background paper should be provided.

Annexes

All annexes to the report must be listed here. 

Annexe A – York Drug and Alcohol Partnership Board Strategy 2025/26/ priorities.

Glossary

A separate document must be attached to each report which clearly lists in alphabetical order any abbreviations used within the report and its associated annexes.