Adult Community Based Drug & Alcohol Treatment Service

The Service will provide both pharmacological and psychosocial programmes for the addiction and dependence to illicit substances and alcohol. These programmes will also be available to individuals who have developed a problem with prescribed medication.

The Service will continue to have the overarching aim of reducing the harms caused by drug and alcohol use. More specifically it will; prevent early mortality caused by drug and alcohol use; reduce levels of dependence; reduce levels of drug and alcohol crime; reduce demand on social care; improve the lives of children of parents with drug or alcohol problems; reduce the spread of infections associated with drug use; reduce hospital admissions and increase the number of people entering employment and positively contributing to the community. The Service will be key in supporting the attainment of the Government’s goals of eradicating homelessness and Hepatitis C.

The Service will target the full spectrum of substance use problems, from ‘recreational’ drug use and lower risk alcohol consumption to severe poly-substance dependence. This broad focus will be reflected in the Service adopting and combining both the harm reduction and recovery approaches to service delivery. It is expected that the new Service will increase the level of attention given to early interventions (i.e. primary prevention).

The Service will continue to provide, within the scope of available funds, a holistic programme of treatment and support, this will include such things as support for families and carers, physical health care, mental health treatment, and access to training and employment programmes.

The Contract Manager has been working closely with a number of stakeholders involved to create a specification that not only reflects the new budgetary requirements, but allows the providers to consider how they might best meet the outcomes defined by the Contract Manager. The specification will therefore be a hybrid version of a requirement based spec and an outcome based spec. The council believes that Providers are best placed to design the service that best supports the required contract outcomes within the parameters of the fixed contract price.

The new contract will commence in April 2020, with an initial term of 48 months and an option to extend up to 36 months. In order for a provider to mobilise this contract an implementation phase of 3 months has been factored into the overall timeline.

The annual contract value will be set at £1,450,000. The evaluation of tenders will be done purely on a selection questionnaire/quality assessment.