24093 Adult Integrated Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery System

Cambridgeshire County Council would like to engage with prospective providers as part of an exploratory market engagement exercise to seek views on the future provision of an Adult Integrated Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery System across the County of Cambridgeshire. Cambridgeshire County Council currently commissions separate adult and young people substance misuse services. Both current contracts end on 31 March 2026. The NHS provide the current Children and Young People's drug and alcohol service which is being commissioned through separate arrangements.

Commissioners respectively request completion of an online questionnaire.

https://forms.office.com/e/hpPBFD0x1p

NOTE: You do not need to register your interest on ProContract.

Findings from this exercise will help inform decision-making by gathering feedback from existing and potential providers to further understand the provider landscape for knowledge, best practice and market sector considerations in relation to the future provision of local treatment services,

Please note: This market testing exercise is not an invitation to tender or a request for formal expressions of interest. It does not form any part of a procurement process at this stage. Cambridgeshire County Council is issuing this document as a request for information only. No supplier selection or preference is implied by participation in this exercise.

This service is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 do not apply.

Community drug and alcohol treatment and recovery provision for adults is currently commissioned through an Adult Integrated Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery System contract.

The Cambridgeshire core Adult Drug and Alcohol Treatment Service (age 18 years +) provides all elements of drug and alcohol support and treatment including:

• Early intervention advice and support
• Pharmacological treatment
• Harm reduction services
• Pharmacy delivered services (including needle and syringe programmes, THN and supervised dispensing)
• Psychosocial support
• Recovery support
• Community/inpatient detox, and residential rehabilitation
• Workforce/stakeholder training

The Cambridgeshire service has specialist staff/teams which include:

• Psychology
• Family safeguarding
• Criminal justice
• Hospital liaison
• Social work/safeguarding
• Nursing/clinical (inc community detox, BBV)
• Primary care/place based early intervention (alcohol)
• Cambridgeshire Recovery service (CRS) (co-produced)
• Quality assurance
• Media/comms

The core Cambridgeshire Public Health Grant funded treatment contract value for 2025-26 is £5.1 million.

Since 2021, service delivery has been enhanced and expanded through investment from central government grants including the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant (RSDATG) and the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG) (now referred to as DATRIG). The IPS service is delivered outside of the treatment service.

The additional grant streams fund the provision of a dedicated rough sleeping drug and alcohol outreach team in Cambridge City (£489k) and the supplementary grant funding provides an enhancement to the treatment service including the funding of additional front-line workers, training, tier 4 placements, dedicated CAB workers, buvidal and harm reduction focused work (1.1 million).

Summary of Needs Assessment and Recommendations:
A local drug and alcohol needs analysis has highlighted several key issues and recommendations.

Children & Young People:
• Highest unmet treatment need for OCU and alcohol in the 15-24 age range

Adults:
• Increase in numbers in treatment (currently 2900 adults in specialist treatment (rolling))
• A growing number of non-opiates entering specialist treatment (higher rates of unmet mental health need in this cohort)
• Lower referral rates from health services
• Underrepresentation of individuals with protected characteristics in specialist treatment.
• Challenges around 'continuity of care' from prison to community.