Equality Impact Assessment Form Reference - 4PH2d
Department / Public Health / Version no / 3.1Assessed by / Colin Stansbie / Date created / 11.11.16
Approved by / Liz Barry / Date approved / 28.11.16
Updated and Final Approval by / Liz Barry / Date updated / 13.02.17
TheEquality Act 2010 requires the Council to have due regard to the need to
· eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
· advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and
· foster good relations between different groups
Section 1: What is being assessed?
1.1 Name of proposal to be assessed.
The Supervised Medication Programme
1.2 Describe the proposal under assessment and what change it would result in if implemented.
The Supervised Medication Programme is delivered by 130 pharmacies across the district. The programme ensures that service users accessing substitute medication prescribed as part of their drug treatment receive supervised dispensing from pharmacy staff to ensure they take their medication safely and correctly. A reduction in the demand for prescribing of substitute medication will lead to a reduction in demand for this service leading to an annual saving of £56,000 in 2017-18 and £6,000 in 2018-19.Section
2: What the impact of the proposal is likely to be
2.1 Will this proposal advance equality of opportunity for people who share a protected characteristic and/or foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those that do not? If yes, please explain further.
No
2.2 Will this proposal have a positive impact and help to eliminate discrimination and harassment against, or the victimisation of people who share a protected characteristic? If yes, please explain further.
No
2.3 Will this proposal potentially have a negative or disproportionate impact on people who share a protected characteristic? If yes, please explain further.
Yes although this is likely to be a low impact across all the protected groups, the effect of which can be mitigated in part by the implementation of the new substance misuse recovery systems. It is not felt at this time that there are any disproportionate impacts on particular protected characteristic groups. However this assessment will continue to be reviewed, as the changes will impact on particularly vulnerable people.
2.4 Please indicate the level of negative impact on each of the protected characteristics?
(Please indicate high (H), medium (M), low (L), no effect (N) for each)
Protected Characteristics: / Impact(H, M, L, N)
Age / L
Disability / L
Gender reassignment / L
Race / L
Religion/Belief / L
Pregnancy and maternity / L
Sexual Orientation / L
Sex / L
Marriage and civil partnership / L
Additional Consideration:
Low income/low wage / L
2.5 How could the disproportionate negative impacts be mitigated or eliminated?
(Note: Legislation and best practice require mitigations to be considered, but need only be put in place if it is possible.)
The programme is dependant upon the effectiveness of the Bradford Substance Misuse Recovery System. The commissioners and Provider will work together to ensure that the financial implications of this reduction in funding will be applied across the whole of the contract and therefore will impact upon all potential services users equally. The impact of the reduction in funding will require the Provider to initially target those people who have been “in treatment” for over 6 years who are resource intensive. The reduction in funding will be based upon the level of activity in particular with this cohort. The negative impact would be individuals who drop out of the system and do not access services . The system is designed to be more effective and thus deliver better outcomes with substance misusers moving through the system more quickly.
The supervision of medication programme ensures that medication is not diverted and used only by the person to whom it is prescribed. Evidence shows that this approach ensures engagement with services and also reduces drug related deaths. The programme will ensure geographical coverage across 130 Pharmacies within the district.
Section 3: Dependencies from other proposals
3.1 Please consider which other services would need to know about your proposal and the impacts you have identified. Identify below which services you have consulted, and any consequent additional equality impacts that have been identified.
This is a joint commission between the three Clinical Commissioning Groups and Public Health thus they have been involved in all aspects of this commission as have the wider stakeholders who were involved in the service review in 2015. The new specification is based upon the recommendations from the review.
Section 4: What evidence you have used?
4.1 What evidence do you hold to back up this assessment?
A review of the existing Substance Misuse Recovery System undertaken in 2015, recommended a fundamental change to the commissioning strategy, and a joined up approach across health and social care providers. The use of drugs and alcohol has changed dramatically over the past 10 years but the local system has struggled to keep up with these changes. The programme will contribute to the overall outcome of successful exits from drug treatment .
4.2 Do you need further evidence?
Not at this stage
Section 5: Consultation Feedback
5.1 Results from any previous consultations prior to the proposal development.
Please see section 2.5 and 4.1
5.2 The departmental feedback you provided on the previous consultation (as at 5.1).
That the programme should be reduced following a reduction in overall demand through the implementation of a new treatment system.
5.3 Feedback from current consultation following the proposal development (e.g. following approval by Executive for budget consultation).
It was felt that reductions in this service would have a detrimental effect on health services and affect people’s lives. It was suggested further conversation with CCGs was needed.
5.4 Your departmental response to the feedback on the current consultation (as at 5.3) – include any changes made to the proposal as a result of the feedback.
The service review, development and agreement of the service specification and the running of the current tender has been undertaken in partnership with the CCGs through their representatives. The new provider will be required to work in flexible ways to develop strong working relationships with their health, social care and voluntary sector partners to respond to service users needs whether this is for advice, prevention, treatment or recovery services. The development of a single integrated substance misuse recovery service will allow for clearer pathways into and out of the service and allow for delivery sites to be located in health provider premises where appropriate, supporting an accessible and responsive service.
4