| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Justice
Prison Drug Treatment
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Mr. David Hanson): The Government are committed to improving prison drug treatment. Effective prison drug treatment lies at the heart of reducing re-offending; reducing the harm to individuals, their families and the wider community caused by drug misuse; and in helping offenders to lead law-abiding, productive lives upon release.
I am today with the Minister of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo), and the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), announcing additional Department of Health (DH) funding for prison clinical drug treatment. £12.7 million was invested in 2007-08, this will rise to £24.4 million (actual) in 2008-09, £39 million (indicative) in 2009-10 and £43 million (indicative) in 2010-11. This additional funding, further developing the integrated drug treatment system (IDTS) in prisons, is aimed at improving the volume and quality of drug treatment with a particular emphasis on the first 28 days in custody and better integration with the community services to which most drug-misusing prisoners will return.
We are also pleased to announce that a national prison drug treatment review group will be established to oversee the continued development of prison drug treatment, informed by recommendations arising from a review of prison drug treatment funding conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) last year.
We are pleased that Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel from the university of Central Lancashire has agreed to chair this group which will consider the PwC recommendations in more detail, agree a single set of priorities and compile national guidance around the streamlining of the commissioning, delivery, funding and performance management of drug treatment for offenders. Lord Patel has made an important contribution both in his role as chairman on the Mental Health Commission and as a non-executive director on the board of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse.
Considerable progress has already been made—funding for prison treatment has increased year on year (up 1008 per cent. since 1996-97), prison drug treatment services have developed rapidly in the past few years with record numbers engaged in treatment. However at the same time, delivery systems had become increasingly complex. In May 2007 the Secretary of State for Health and the then Home Secretary requested an urgent review of the use of existing resources for drug treatment in prisons. The objective of the review was to explore how existing resources could be used more effectively to ensure that that prison drug treatment services reduced re-offending and met the treatment needs for prisoners throughout their time in custody and in preparation for their release.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was appointed to undertake the review and their report was received in December 2007. The PwC report acknowledged the considerable investment in prison-based drug services over the last 10 years which had lead to major
improvements, with many examples of excellent practice. But the report also identified the lack of a clear inter-departmental strategy; fragmented organisational arrangements for funding, commissioning, performance management and delivery of services; the lack of a clear evidence base for some services currently offered; and inefficiencies and gaps in services. The report recommended eight steps which should now be taken to build upon and improve the delivery of drug services to offenders in prison and to extract better value from the considerable resources invested.
The principal recommendation is to set up a national offender drug strategy group to commission a series of projects that would:
determine and agree the key outcomes needed for prisoners and offenders, both in prison and on release into the community;
establish a set of national minimum standards for drug treatment in prison;
identify opportunities for achieving efficiency savings to invest in prison and offender drug treatment services;
examine the case for prioritising some groups of prisoners and offenders;
develop the commissioning model at national, regional and local level;
develop a single health and a single criminal justice funding stream to target services more effectively; and
agree systems for improved information sharing to support better quality performance management and case management.
Copies of the executive summary of the PwC report, “Review of Prison-Based Drug Treatment Funding, December 2007” have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.
Work and Pensions
Health of the Working Age Population
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Purnell): My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and I have today received Dame Carol Black’s review of the health of Britain’s working age population, “Working for a Healthier Tomorrow”, commissioned by our Departments last year.
The report sets out the impact of working age ill-health and the scale of the challenge ahead of us. Ill-health among working age people impacts on many of our key priorities, such as eradicating child poverty, achieving full employment, tackling health inequalities and creating a strong and successful economy. While we have done much across government on this agenda over the past few years, there is clearly more still to do. This is the focus of today’s review.
The Government welcome the review and will consider Dame Carol’s findings carefully. Over the coming months we will study her recommendations closely and will develop detailed proposals to make a real difference. This work will support our wider challenge of ensuring that the NHS becomes more than just a treatment service for patients who are ill, but helps to keep people healthy and prevent ill-health from occurring too.
While it will take some time to develop this package of measures, I can today set out the immediate steps we are taking to ensure that 2008 marks a step change in the way we approach the health of the working age population.
Dame Carol has flagged up that employee access to occupational health is often poor and there needs to be increased support for smaller employers. We can today announce that we are taking a next small step to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). An £11 million capital fund is being established to allow us to set up six new NHS Plus demonstration sites to look at innovative ways of supporting SMEs with occupational health services, adding to the five demonstration sites we established last year.
Meanwhile, we recognise that early intervention is crucial to helping people with health conditions stay in work and preventing milder health conditions from worsening. Therefore we will also be looking at the best way of exploring Dame Carol’s suggestion of a “Fit for Work” service for people in the early stages of sickness absence. Any such pilot will be evaluated to assess the benefits to individuals and businesses and the level of potential savings which could support the costs. There may also be the opportunity for employers to contribute to such a service if it were found to be effective.
We are also committed to improving the support for those people who do fall out of work on to benefits. The new employment and support allowance and the significant investment we are making in Pathways to Work will help many new benefit recipients to return to work and fulfil their potential. I am also committed to helping those people who are currently on incapacity benefit. While they can already volunteer for the support available through Pathways, it is my ambition that, over time and as resources permit, we transfer everyone on incapacity benefit to the employment and support allowance. We will also look to apply a more active approach to existing incapacity benefit claimants as well as new ones, starting with those under 25. We will explore using a new funding mechanism to reward private and voluntary sector specialist providers for investing in helping long-term incapacity benefits claimants to return to work.
We will also ensure that, from 2010, all existing incapacity benefit customers will have the new work
capability assessment applied when their entitlement to benefit is due to be reassessed. The new test will be a more accurate assessment of functional ability, reflecting the activities needed in today’s workplace, and looking at what people can do, as well as what they cannot do. In particular the new test will include a more extensive and fairer assessment of mental function.
Dame Carol rightly points out that mental ill-health represents a key challenge for Government. As such, supporting people with mental health conditions will be a central element of the Government response, with our proposed national strategy on mental health and work forming part of the package. The development of the strategy will be led in part by Dame Carol herself, working closely with stakeholders in this area. As we develop this strategy we will assess the effectiveness of existing programmes and treatments on people with mental health conditions. We will also consider the findings of the Royal College of Psychiatrists report, “Mental Health and Work”, commissioned to support Dame Carol’s review.
We are also committed to ensuring that our “Pathways to Work” and “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies” (IAPT) programmes are aligned as they are rolled out across the country, ensuring that people receive mental health and employment support in a joined-up fashion. I can today also announce that DWP will provide funding to test placing private or voluntary sector advisers in the IAPT programme, offering employment advice to working age people receiving therapy, whether in employment or not.
The measures I have set out today are our first steps in the journey set out by Dame Carol. We are committed to making this journey and radically improving the health of working age people. We want to help more people to enter or remain in work and establish healthier workplaces as the norm, with an ultimate ambition of good jobs for all. Success in this agenda will benefit individuals, families, communities, businesses and the economy as a whole.
Copies of “Working for a Healthier Tomorrow” and its accompanying evidence summary will be placed in the Library of the House.
| Index | Home Page |