Issue - meetings

To approve the distribution of Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant.

Resolved:-

(1) That the Director of Public Health be authorised to distribute the Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG) as required by Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) grant conditions.

(2) That the Director of Public Health be authorised to have final sign off on the distribution of the funds over the grant period covering the following financial years: 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25.

                  Approval was sought for the Director of Public Health to distribute the Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG) as required by Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) grant conditions.

                  Approval was also sought for the Director of Public Health to be authorised to have final sign off on the distribution of the funds over the grant period covering the following financial

                  Reasons for Recommendations

                  Sandwell’s allocated SSMTRG amount for the 2022/23 period was £532,036.

                  The funding must be spent on interventions that aimed to achieve the Drug Strategy ambition to reduce drug and alcohol related deaths and harms. The Strategy therefore required that local areas rebuild and reinvest into local support systems towards “a world class drug treatment and recovery system”.  Monies could only be spent on provisions that fit within OHIDs menu of interventions.

                  Cabinet approval had already been secured to vary the existing Cranstoun contract to accommodate SSMTRG provisions up to a maximum value of £280,066 and to procure future treatment services including use of SSMTRG within those future contract provisions (given the current Cranstoun contract would expire on 31 January 2023 therefore ending before the SSMTRG grant term period).

                  Therefore, it was proposed to secure approval to use the remaining and any future SSMTRG (the monies not already covered by previous Cabinet approvals) as required by Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) grant conditions.

                  Alternative Options

                  The alternative option was to not approve distribution of the SSMTRG as required by OHID and not utilise the additional funding but simply return the monies to government.

                  This would mean that the local treatment population would not benefit from the potential quality and capacity improvements that the monies could afford.

Agreed:-

(1)     that the Director of Public Health be authorised to distribute the Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG) as required by Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) grant conditions;

(2)     that the Director of Public Health be authorised to have final sign off on the distribution of the funds over the grant period covering the following financial years: 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25.