The Director of Public Health introduced the report which provided the Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee with an update on the progress of delivery of three grant funded programmes which aimed to reduce the impact of substance misuse within the borough. The three programmes were: Wirral ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery) Accelerator programme; Inpatient detox funding and the Individual Placement Support (IPS) programme. The report outlined the Wirral ADDER programme plan for 2022/23, including underspend, and requested the committee to approve the planned use of funding.

in January 2021, the Government announced an additional £148m of funding to reduce drug related crime and health harm. Wirral was one was 12 areas to be highlighted to receive significant additional funding. It was reported that the main service, Wirral Ways to Recovery made very strong use of people in recovery and had apprentices, volunteers and recovery champions and emphasised a focus on healthcare rather than criminal justice.

A Member commented that they were pleased to see the change from using the criminal justice system to recovery and felt that changing attitudes were making a huge difference as well as collaborative working with the police.

Resolved - That

(1)  the progress in mobilising and delivering the three national grant funding programmes (Wirral ADDER accelerator programme, inpatient detox funding and individual placement support funding be endorsed.

(2)  the proposal to utilise the predicted extension of the provision of additional funding to deliver the national drug strategy until the end of the 2024/25 financial year be approved.

(3)  the proposed utilisation of the ADDER programme grant for the 22/23 period (£1.4m) and proposed utilisation of the underspend carried forward from 2021/22 funded by Home Office and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), formerly Public Health England be approved.

(4)  the payment of £106K of in-patient detox grant for 2021-22 to CGL/Wirral Ways to Recovery, as part of a contract variation, to re-imburse the additional expenditure on detox placements they have made this year to this amount be approved, in addition to their budgeted capacity due to it being accrued as part of delivering the Inpatient Detox Grant Programme.

(5)  the continuation of the Individual Placement Support Grant (£135,000) for 2022-23 be approved.