139 actions from final report

When considering the recommendations and actions of the Taskforce the short, medium and long term timescales are defined as:

• Short Term: Less than a year
• Medium Term: 1 to 3 years
• Long Term: 3 to 5 years

• The Drug Policy Division of the Scottish Government should work with ongoing Taskforce projects and feed any learning into Scotland’s National Mission. (Timescale: Short)
• The UK Government should amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2000 to allow for the legal provision of a wider range of drug paraphernalia through harm-reduction and treatment services. This is essential to enabling safer drug consumption. (Timescale: Medium)
• While the Scottish Government is unable to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2000, it should explore all options to support their amendment as suggested by the Taskforce. (Timescale: Medium)
• The UK Government should review the regulations on dispensing and prescription forms for controlled drugs to take account of clinical and technological advances since implementation in 2001. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should work with the UK Government to deliver progress on the regulation of pill presses, including developing a suitable licensing system to reduce related harm. (Timescale: Short)
• The UK Government should urgently remove the exemption set out in S3.1 of the Equality Act 2010, (Disability) Regulations 2010, and make drug dependency part of the protected characteristic of disability. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should do everything within its powers to hasten the removal of the exemption set out in S3.1 of the Equality Act 2010, (Disability) Regulations 2010 and make drug dependency part of the protected characteristics of disability. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should ensure, as part of the Human Rights Bill and/or National Collaborative work to develop a Charter of Rights, that the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is accessible and enforceable for people who use drugs, removing any discriminatory separation between drug dependency and other health conditions, as currently exists in the Equality Act 2010. (Timescale: Medium)
• The UK Government should undertake a root and branch review of the Misuse of Drugs Act, reforming the law to support harm-reduction measures and implement a public health approach. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• If the UK Government are not willing to reform the Misuse of Drugs Act, it should commit to exploring all available options openly with the Scottish Government to enable Scotland to take a public health approach. (Timescale: Short/Medium)

• All responses to problem substance use must be coproduced or co-developed with people with lived and living experience. (Timescale: Short)
• ADPs should ensure that specific psychological and wellbeing support is provided for people with lived and living experience. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government should work to ensure that barriers to accessing opportunities such as volunteering, training, education or employment are removed for people with lived and living experience wherever possible. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should continue to support the whole-family approach and implement the actions set out in the framework at pace. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and chief officers should ensure that family-inclusive practice is embedded across the public sector, with mandatory training provided for the workforce. (Timescale: Medium)
• ADPs should ensure that specific, ring-fenced support, including psychological and wellbeing support, is available for family members. This should not be dependent on the person who uses drugs accessing support. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should develop and rapidly implement a national stigma action plan, co-produced with people with lived, living and family experience and built on the Taskforce stigma strategy. (Timescale: Short)
• The National Collaborative should inform and support the development and implementation of the action plan and hold the Scottish Government and partners to account for delivery. (Timescale: Short)
• All services that support people who use drugs should have a defined, collaborative improvement plan for tackling stigma, based on national and local strategies. It should include a full critical review of their service to identify and proactively counter any systemic stigmatising practices. (Timescale: Medium)
• Ofcom, media outlets and commissioning editors should use the SFAD and SRC guidelines for journalists and work with organisations representing people who use drugs and their families to develop guidance on reducing stigma and discrimination in reporting, documentaries and fiction. Scottish Government should support these organisations to deliver this action. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and chief officers should mandate that our Stigma Charter is adopted by all public bodies and services and all other organisations should be encouraged to adopt it. The uptake of this adoption should be recorded and reported publicly, with appropriate and defined sanctions for public bodies and services that do not adopt it. (Timescale: Short)
• People should not be turned away from services because they have additional support needs that are outwith the service’s remit. They should be linked with appropriate services and be supported to address their own needs. (Timescale: Medium)
• ADPs should ensure that people with multiple and complex needs are not simply passed on to other services. A single lead professional should, with the patient’s consent and involvement, take a coordinating role in developing and overseeing a holistic care package. (Timescale: Medium)
• Service providers in all sectors and ADPs should ensure that support, including for mental health, is not conditional on people receiving treatment for their dependency, recovery or abstinence. (Timescale: Medium)
• ADPs and services should work effectively across boundaries to ensure that individuals have choice over what services they access and where. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should continue to support Housing First and expand coverage to all local areas in Scotland. Learning from the model can be used to support the design of other support services. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should gather the evidence from Taskforce projects that continue beyond July 2022 and share these with local areas to inform local strategic plans. Effective changes to support joint working and improve and save lives should be implemented. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and ADPs should support the improvement of partnership-working across the sector, including between statutory and third-sector services, and with recovery communities. This should be backed by fair, transparent and sustainable funding to ensure services are delivered in the most effective way by the right partners. (Timescale: Medium/Long)

• Local services must consider their provision and pathways through an equalities lens, ensuring that women can access the support they need when they need it. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• ADPs and services must ensure specific pathways are developed to ensure young people can access the support they need when they need it. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government must prioritise tackling the root causes of drug dependency, embedding this focus into work across Government to address poverty and structural inequality. (Timescale: Long)
• Education Scotland should develop a new education programme for drugs based on findings in “What works in Drug Education and Prevention?” (Timescale: Medium)
• Within the next year, the Scottish Government should undertake and publish a mapping exercise of touchpoints outwith the drug and alcohol sector, with the ultimate aim of making every contact count. The Government should then ensure that at these touch points, people are aware of the services available and are able to engage effectively with referral pathways into treatment and support. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government, chief officers and ADPs should ensure that every worker who is public-facing or who works in a publicly funded service completes trauma training appropriate to their role, as set out in the NES Knowledge and Skills Framework for Psychological Trauma and the Scottish Psychological Trauma Training Programme. (Timescale: Medium)
• ADPs and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (or the Care Inspectorate) should ensure that all drug services are delivered in psychologically- and trauma-informed environments. (Timescale: Medium)
• Local ADPs should keep a single, up-to-date, publicly available record of services in their area. It should clearly identify referral pathways and feed into a national platform from which information on any local area can be found. (Timescale: Short)
• Within the next year, the Scottish Government, chief officers and ADPs should ensure that every local area has an effective NFO pathway that follows the outlined procedure. Any person flagged as having an NFO by an emergency responder, service or professional should be referred to the pathway. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and ADPs should ensure that out-of-hours emergency support for point-of-need care and management of prescriptions is available in every local area. This should provide a place of safety in which individuals can be stabilised and supported to access follow-up support where necessary. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and NHS 24 should extend the existing phone service to provide a dedicated resource for supporting individuals with their substance use and helping them to access treatment and services in their area. This phone line should be available for individuals and their family members. (Timescale: Medium)
• The UK Government should implement legislative changes to support the introduction of Supervised Drug Consumption Facilities. In the interim, the Scottish Government should continue its efforts with stakeholders to support their implementation within the existing legal framework. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• SDCFs should be available nationally but be locally commissioned to meet the specific needs of the population, in line with the public health needs assessment. They should be sustainably funded, operated by appropriately trained multi-disciplinary teams and incorporate appropriate aftercare. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• Clear engagement with local communities and all relevant stakeholders, including sharing the evidence base for SDCFs, should be taken forward prior to implementation in a local area. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should work with NHS naloxone leads and pharmaceutical companies to ensure sufficient supplies are available to meet anticipated demand. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The UK Government should permanently reclassify naloxone from a POM to a Pharmacy or General Sales List medicine. (Timescale: Short)
• In the absence of a full reclassification of naloxone, the Scottish Government should work closely with the UK Government to ensure that the changes planned reflect the breadth of the Lord Advocate’s Statement of Prosecution Policy in Scotland. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should also engage with the Lord Advocate in relation to extending the time that the current Statement of Prosecution Policy is in place. (Timescale: Short)
• The NHS should establish a National Naloxone Coordinator post in NHS National Services Scotland to nationally manage the provision of naloxone. This role should be regularly reviewed to ensure it is effective and still needed. The roles of naloxone leads in health boards should be formalised. (Timescale: Short)
• The National Naloxone Coordinator should ensure that all front-facing public services staff are trained and have access to naloxone. (Timescale: Medium)
• GPs should be encouraged to supply naloxone on GP10 prescriptions and through direct distribution of naloxone packs, possibly obtained on a stock order to hold in the practice. (Timescale: Short)
• An awareness campaign should be launched for GPs and practice staff around naloxone to enable them to provide information to patients on its use. (Timescale: Short)
• All community pharmacies should hold naloxone for administration in an emergency and should be able to supply THN to people who use drugs, families and anyone likely to witness an opioid overdose. (Timescale: Short)
• The National Nalaxone Coordinator should ensure that naloxone training is incorporated into all standard first-aid and resuscitation training, and consideration should be given to supplying “naloxboxes”. Training should be provided for all students in professions where people may reasonably be expected to come into contact with a person experiencing an overdose. (Timescale: Medium)
• Clarity must be provided on the legal right to carry and administer naloxone. (Timescale: Short)
• The NHS Naloxone Coordinator and Public Health Scotland should undertake a rapid review of the monitoring and evaluation of naloxone. The review should lead to changes to more effectively assess the amount of naloxone in circulation, its use and the effectiveness of current initiatives to increase distribution. (Timescale: Medium)
• People should continue to be able to access THN through a “click and deliver” service that is accessible to all. ADPs, as well as services that do not offer THN, should direct people who use drugs, peers and family members to this service. The Scottish Government should ensure that the service is adequately funded to meet increasing demand. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should expand the THN programme, ensuring in particular that it is available where required for all leavers from police and prison custody and on release from hospital. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• As part of the roll-out of naloxone provision, the Scottish Government should look to extend its availability wherever possible, including through the support of relevant public-facing services such as taxi and bus companies. (Timescale: Medium)
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Government should work with navigator services to develop standards and guidance to which services must adhere. People should be guaranteed a consistent standard of care and support that encompasses all areas, including mental health, violence and drug use. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should ensure that a navigator framework is set up and consolidated, allowing local knowledge to link with national funding. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should commission the development of standards and guidance for all services that use peer support, ensuring workers are paid, developed and have career progression opportunities. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should support the provision of licensed drug-checking facilities nationally, ensuring they are available within existing services, at key events and through a postal system. (Timescale: Medium)
• Over the next two years, the Scottish Government, chief officers and ADPs should ensure that all the MAT standards are fully implemented, embedded and mainstreamed, with standards 1–5 implemented in the next year. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland should develop and implement overarching treatment and recovery guidance and standards for alcohol and drug services. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should support and promote a national roll-out of HAT. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• A whole-systems approach should be adopted nationally and locally to meeting the requirements of the MAT standards for treatment and support for those who wish, and are appropriate for accessing, care in a primary care setting. This should include shared care protocols and contractual arrangements for primary care provision that must be effectively implemented and appropriately resourced. Local and national adjustments to the GP contract may be required. (Timescale: Medium)
• Drug treatment services should facilitate transfers to and from primary care at all stages of the person’s journey, depending on their needs and wishes. (Timescale: Short)
• Referrals to primary care (such as GP, pharmacy, optician and dental services) should be backed by a plan for disengaging from the service. Appropriate aftercare should be in place, with the option for a barrier-free return to specialist care if needed. (Timescale: Short)
• WAND should be expanded throughout Scotland, reflecting the requirement of MAT Standard 4. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should support a move from pharmacy payments being based on number of supervisions to a per capita system. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• A nationally agreed specification should be developed with directors of pharmacy and Community Pharmacy Scotland. This should set out what should be expected of each pharmacy in Scotland. (Timescale: Medium)
• The UK Government should conduct a review of the regulations on prescriptions by the end of this year. The review should take account of the changes made since the initial regulations were implemented in 2001. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should expand the current commitment on residential rehabilitation to consider crisis and stabilisation, detoxification and residential rehabilitation. Appropriate funding should be provided to ensure that all are available everywhere in Scotland at the point of need. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should work to ensure national coverage of crisis and stabilisation services that include crisis beds to provide a place of safety. This should be available out of hours and have links to SAS to enable SAS personnel to take an individual directly to the service. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should ensure recovery communities are funded to provide their vital service and are encouraged to develop peer-led services. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government should look at opportunities for expanded residential and specialised care services to be used as an alternative to remand or custody, where appropriate. (Timescale: Medium)
• Statutory partners in the justice system should develop standard operating procedures for the sharing of information at all points of the justice system and with services. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should work with statutory partners in the justice system to develop a single record for people’s justice journey to ensure tailored support at all stages of the journey and support decision-making. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and statutory partners in the justice system should ensure that navigators and outreach workers have the resources to follow and support vulnerable individuals throughout their justice journey and beyond. (Timescale: Medium)
• Statutory partners in the justice system should develop standard operating procedures for referral at every point of the justice system. They should work proactively with vulnerable individuals and their families to ensure all policies and procedures are trauma-informed. (Timescale: Short)
• The current diversion from prosecution guidance should be reviewed to incorporate support for treatment and recovery as part of a diversion pathway. Local authorities should work with specialists and people with lived and living experience to embed the guidance in a consistent and evidence-based way and monitor and evaluate its effects. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should support the development of a national diversion from prosecution forum for practitioners and agencies who work with people who use drugs, and a multi-agency tasking and coordination protocol to support people who use drugs and who have multiple complex needs. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government and Community Justice Scotland should develop a national diversion toolkit on supporting people who use drugs. It should reflect the tailored support that is needed to promote people’s treatment and recovery. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and Police Scotland should ensure that police referral pathways are available nationally. This may include developing a national standard operating procedure. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and Police Scotland should establish a shared practice and learning network for police referrals to develop national consistency, with variation based on local needs. (Timescale: Short)
• Embedding MAT standards in police and prison custody settings should be a top priority for the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and NHS Scotland. (Timescale: Medium)
• By the end of 2022, the Scottish Government should publish an action plan with timescales for implementation of the measures supported in the bail and release from custody consultation. (Timescale: Short)
• The Taskforce would welcome a review of sentencing guidelines by the Scottish Sentencing Council to take greater account of the treatment and recovery needs of people who use drugs. Scottish Government should engage with the Council to request the proposed review. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should commission a peer-led evaluation of the Glasgow Drug Court to explore how this approach is more successful than a standard court process and support the expansion of the drug court model. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Prison Service and NHS Scotland should ensure that all people in prison have access to effective treatment and support for recovery. This should be a blanket policy that includes those on remand and is properly resourced through appropriate investment. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Prison Service and NHS Scotland should ensure that people who use drugs are provided with naloxone on liberation. Peer-to-peer supply should be available across the prison estate. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and Scottish Prison Service should, with the support of the third sector and people with lived and living experience, expand the recovery cafes/hubs across the prison estate, developing these into recovery communities that effectively support people who use drugs. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service should establish an integrated case management approach, seamlessly connecting service provision from the community, throughout an individual’s time in prison and beyond. (Timescale: Medium)
• Individuals should receive treatment and support throughout their time in prison and have a release plan established from day one identifying the services they need to access on release. This should be continuously updated. (Timescale: Short)
• Prisons should be permeable to enable access for services, be they statutory or third sector. (Timescale: Short)
• Statutory services should be obliged to continue (or establish) support for all individuals in prison, including those on remand, ensuring that there is no gap in provision on release and that individuals leave prison better supported than when they entered. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should change the legislation to implement a blanket policy of no liberations on a Friday or the day before a public holiday. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should build on the Prison to Rehab programme, utilising the learning from the 2021 evaluation in a wider national roll-out. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should review drug treatment and testing orders, community payback orders and other community sentencing options to assess how they have been used, their outcomes and whether they are the most effective mechanism to support an individual’s recovery and reduce recidivism rates. (Timescale: Medium)

• The Scottish Government should undertake a transparent and externally validated benchmarking exercise to ensure that every ADP is implementing the partnership delivery framework. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should publish a statement setting out how governance of alcohol and drug services will be improved by the introduction of the NCS. The statement should clearly articulate how the service will establish the most effective governance structure for managing drug-related deaths and harms. (Timescale: Short)
• Chief officers ultimately should be accountable for the response to drug-related deaths in their area, coordinated through the Chief Officers’ Group. Chief officers should take responsibility for delivering strategic outcomes against national targets and for improving the system to prevent deaths wherever possible. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should develop a national framework for the operation of drug-death review groups across Scotland. It should set the expectation that every death is reviewed to learn lessons, with these being reported directly to the Chief Officers’ Group to facilitate change and prevent further deaths. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should ensure that all services in the alcohol and drugs sector are inspected by either Healthcare Improvement Scotland or the Care Inspectorate. Avenues for individuals to anonymously raise concerns or complaints for investigation should be provided. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government should ensure that all self-assessments used are externally validated and chief officers are held to account for their quality. (Timescale: Short)
• The First Minister should commit to sustaining and accelerating the current focus on drug-related deaths, with a dedicated Minister for Drugs Policy, until there is a meaningful and sustained downward trend in drug-related deaths. (Timescale: Short)
• The First Minister/Minister for Drugs Policy should clearly define what a public health emergency response to drug-related deaths means in practice, what new powers or resources it unlocks and how it influences activity under the National Mission. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should work to break down silos in policy-making and ensure that appropriate groups are in place internally to drive action on drug related deaths and facilitate the implementation of the Taskforce’s recommendations and actions. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should publish a national outcomes framework and strategy underpinning the National Mission. This should outline the outcomes, drivers and indicators through which the Mission will be measured. It should also clearly outline what funding is allocated to each overarching objective. (Timescale: Short)
• Local leaders at all levels must take ownership of the drug-deaths crisis in their area. They must take responsibility for delivering the whole system of care outlined in this report and embedding the principles of a person-centred, human rights-based and trauma-informed approach in services, with people with lived, living and family experience at its heart. (Timescale: Short)
• As outlined by the Drug Death Reporting Short Life Working Group, a National Co-ordinator for Drug-related Deaths role should be created in Public Health Scotland to improve consistency and data-sharing and coordinate a review of the national drug-related death database. This role should be regularly reviewed to ensure it is effective and still needed. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• A full review of public health surveillance should be undertaken, led by the Scottish Government and involving all partners. The aim would be to ensure that the most relevant data is collected and shared in a transparent and accountable way, thereby furthering achievement of the objectives of the National Mission. (Timescale: Medium)
• Public Health Scotland should build on the established early warning system to improve data linkage and provide the most up-to-date and accurate information for responding to risks. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government must publish a detailed evaluation plan for the National Mission as part of the national outcomes framework and strategy. (Timescale: Short)
• All services should develop a monitoring and evaluation plan by the end of the year. The plan should embed a quality improvement approach to ensure the best service for people who use drugs. (Timescale: Short)
• If not already doing so, ADPs should develop formal mechanisms for capturing lessons learned through service delivery, partnership working, and monitoring and evaluation. They should actively share this learning and quality improvement activity with other ADPs and the Scottish Government through the existing engagement structure. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and chief officers should ensure that transparent public monitoring information is available for the services delivered in local areas. This should include monitoring the implementation of the Taskforce recommendations and actions and delivery against the outcomes of the national outcomes framework. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should commit to providing sustainable funding to assist individuals in connecting digitally with those who care about them and the services that support them. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government and wider local leadership should embrace digital innovation, finding ways to improve how people access health, care and support at the point of need. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should explore the conclusions of the Overdose Detection and Responder Alert Technologies (ODART) programme, supporting innovation that has been shown to improve individuals’ experiences. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should fund a Civtech round, with partners from across the drug and alcohol sector and wider public service organisations invited to sponsor challenges. Challenges should be targeted to resolve persistent long-term barriers. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should work with the Information Commissioners Office to provide a guidance note, or an open letter, assuring services that data can be shared between statutory and third-sector partners without consequences under the General Data Protection Regulation. (Timescale: Short)
• All partners urgently need to work to formalise interagency data-sharing relationships to ensure equality of access to data across services. This must also extend to third-sector partners. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should run a project to develop a single record that follows an individual throughout their treatment and recovery journey, improving data linkage across the system and enabling a shared understanding of an individual’s history, needs and care package. This record can then be shared to inform interactions with the criminal justice system or other support services. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government, in partnership with people with lived and living experience, families and the wider sector, should develop a single platform to ensure that information is available for the people who need it when they need it. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• The Scottish Government should build on the workforce survey by conducting a rapid review to determine the required workforce to deliver the service developments outlined in this report and the key commitments of the National Mission. The review should set out the resources needed to support an expanded workforce across the sector and undertake a training needs assessment. (Timescale: Short)
• As part of the wider work to develop standards and guidance set out in previous actions, the Scottish Government should ensure the principles of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 are applied to this workforce to ensure safe and appropriate workloads for staff and that their wellbeing is supported. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland should define key competencies and identify mandatory training for workers who support people who use drugs, and provide support for the development of continuous professional development in the service. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should improve the availability of specialist dependency modules and courses in higher education, embedding this into undergraduate courses and establishing new postgraduate qualifications. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should support professions to develop specific pathways for people with lived and living experience to enter the workforce, ensuring they are appropriately paid and have career progression opportunities. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should develop targeted and accelerated pathways into the sector through, for example, apprenticeships and fast-track courses to address the high level of vacancies. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should develop and rapidly implement a workforce action plan to: increase the number of qualified professionals in the sector; set standards, competencies and training requirements; and ensure the workforce is supported, well-trained and well-resourced. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government should commission guidance on how employees in recovery can be supported. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government must publish a fully funded plan for the National Mission by the end of this year. This should deliver on all elements of the evidence-based strategic plan outlined in this report. It should commit to increasing funding to meet demand and appropriately resource each aspect of the whole system of care to ensure people can access the support they need when they need it. (Timescale: Short)
• The Scottish Government and statutory services should commit to providing sustainable medium-/longterm funding across financial years to provide security for services and the workforce. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• The Scottish Government should commit to providing ring-fenced budgets for alcohol and drug services, even if services are absorbed into the NCS, so there is no reduction in their budgets. (Timescale: Short/Medium)
• Portfolios across the Scottish Government should agree ring-fenced funding to support people who use drugs to improve their lives through better access to services and holistic support. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• As part of the National Mission, Scottish Government portfolios should commit to a programme of joint commissioning and joint working. Projects should work towards supporting holistic care pathways and system integration, with a focus on multiple complex needs. (Timescale: Medium/Long)
• Local partners, coordinated by ADPs, should commit to joint commissioning and joint working to deliver key improvements and support local outcomes frameworks. (Timescale: Medium)
• The Scottish Government should nationally commission residential services, ensuring adequate funding is available to meet the demand for crisis and stabilisation, detoxification and residential rehabilitation. Placements should be free at the point of need and should be available without lengthy delays. (Timescale: Medium)