Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Drug Treatment Needs Assessment Expert Group

Terms of Reference

Standards for Better Health (DoH) and Models of Care: Update 2006 (NTA) requires there to be a shared understanding of the local need for drug and alcohol treatment, based upon annual needs assessment reports in line with a nationally agreed methodology. The needs assessment should profile the diversity of local need for treatment, including rates of morbidity and mortality (e.g. infection with blood borne viruses), the degree of treatment saturation or penetration, and impact of treatment on individual health, public health and offending.

Function

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Needs Assessment Group is the required group of local experts charged with steering the comprehensive local needs assessment process to contribute to treatment commissioning/improvement plans that reduce the harms associated with problem drinking and drug taking.

Purpose

The purpose of the needs assessment is to examine, as systematically as possible, what the relative needs and harms are, and inform commissioners to make evidence-based and ethical decisions on how needs might be most effectively met within available resources.

Chair

Chair each of the 6meetings of the expert group scheduled between May 2009 and January 2010.

Set agendas with the DAAT administration for each of these groups

Agree the minutes for each of these groups

Make monthly contact with individual sub-group leaders in between expert group meetings to ensure progress is maintained and to be made aware of any issues in the individual work areas.

Administration

Organise meeting dates & venues

Take & disseminate the minutes

Tasks

The needs assessment process in 2009/2010following the review of the existing needs assessment 2008/2009 will primarily focus on:

  1. Service mapping –auditing against models of care, NICE and other recent guidance (June/July 2009)
  1. Develop a capacity and improvement plan (August 2009)
  1. Review incidence, prevalence and performance by locality area (TBC with Amethyst)
  1. Diversity and Equality with a focus on BME, Disability and how we respond to age in the treatment system (June/July/August)
  1. Social Inclusion/Reintegration – re-iterate accommodation needs and incorporate Penzance sector review. Enhanced focus on employment, training and community re-integration.
  1. Focus Groups (September/October) to test findings, particularly with regard to:

(i)Dual diagnosis - Multiple vulnerabilities

(ii)Criminal Justice – focussing on consulting service users

(iii)Employment (if additional requirement following specific task group)

(iv)Blood Borne Virus/Harm Reduction

(v)Tier 4

(vi)Disabilities

(vii)Families & Carers

Membership

Following the learning from last year ithas been agreed locally that the following agencies/individuals will be members of the expert group:

  • DAAT manager
  • DAAT Joint commissioning manager
  • DAAT social inclusion officer
  • Public Health
  • Criminal Justice representative
  • Partnership analyst (Amethyst)
  • Service user representative
  • Gwellheans
  • National Treatment Agency representative
  • The Freshfield Service
  • Job Centre Plus
  • St Petrocs
  • Supporting People/Housing

The representativeson the expert group that will be leading the work on a working sub-group which will feed into the main expert group are as follows:-

Alcohol – Jez Bayes

Employment, Housing and Re-integration/Social Inclusion – Marion Barton

Diversity – Kim Hager

Tier 4 –Kim Hager

Harm Reduction – Lynne Kirkham

Families & Carers- Kim Hager

Criminal Justice – Bob Crossland

Revised 2009/2010