Council accepts £4.6m to tackle drug and alcohol-related harms
Committee members at Wirral’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee have agreed to accept a grant of more than £4.6 million to tackle drug and alcohol-related harms in Wirral communities.
The monies, known as the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant (DATRIG), will build on the borough’s ongoing work within the drug and alcohol support sector.
Cllr Julie McManus, Chair of Wirral’s Adult Social Care and Public Health committee, said:
Over the last few years Wirral has received government funding which has led to improvements and changes in how local partners work together to tackle the impact of drugs in our communities.
But, while our health and community partners work tirelessly alongside us in this area, Wirral still has a large cohort of people who use drugs, many of whom have complex health and social needs.
It is therefore vital that we continue our work to ensure that all those who need treatment are able to access it without delay.
Previous funding in this area, under the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) grant has helped to support organisations like Wirral Ways, the borough's drug and alcohol treatment service for adults. The additional funding has allowed the service to create bespoke roles to support those accessing their service.
One example of this work included the development of an over-the-counter and prescribed medications worker, who focuses their work on supporting people who have been on long term opiate pain medication which has led to dependency.
Pete Berry, Senior Practitioner at Wirral Ways, said:
Thanks to this funding, we’ve been able to support a diverse range of people who had become dependent on certain medications. This cohort of people don’t usually engage with drug treatment services, but this funding has allowed us to work innovatively and collaboratively with Primary Care Networks (PCNs), GPs, Pharmacies and Health Coaches. This has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on communities and enabled 45 people to make positive changes in their lives.
This further funding enables additional investment in Wirral’s core drug treatment and recovery system.
Cllr McManus said:
The funding will be used to continue improving the quality and capacity of the treatment service and delivering improvements in the wider system. The work Wirral has done to date has been recognised as good practice nationally by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
In this round of funding, Wirral has received:
- £4,376,408 Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) grant funding – which will fund additional resources and staffing, expanding and enhancing treatment services across the borough.
- £111,364 Inpatient Detoxification grant funding – to help people detox from drugs and alcohol in a supportive and safe environment.
- £151,632 grant funding for Individual Placement Support – to support people in recovery to enter sustained and meaningful employment and training.
Delivery plans for how the funding will be used have been endorsed by the Wirral Combatting Drugs Partnership and will be reviewed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. DATRIG funding will be received from April 2025 with work commencing immediately.
DATRIG is made available to local authorities on the condition of maintaining existing funding through the Public Health Grant. DATRIG was formerly known as the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) grant.
