Annual Progress Report for the Joint Combatting Drugs Unit October 2024

Background and context

Information about the national drug strategy and requirement for local partnerships is Reducing Drug Harm Partnership.

Southampton Reducing Drug Harm Partnership

Information about the purpose and membership of our Partnership is Reducing Drug Harm Partnership.

Southampton RDHP considers and seeks to address drug related harm for our city and usually meets 3 times a year, depending on need. There is a national requirement for specific roles. In Southampton, these are fulfilled by:

• Director of Public Health, Southampton City Council: Senior Responsible Officer and Chair       
• Chief Inspector, Hampshire Constabulary: Deputy Chair and Joint Partnership Lead
• Consultant in Public Health, Southampton City Council: Joint Partnership Lead
• Cabinet Member for, Southampton City Council: Joint Public Involvement Lead
• Chief Executive Officer, Southampton Voluntary Services: Joint Public Involvement Lead
• Head of Data, Intelligence & Insight, Southampton City Council: Data Lead

Summary of the drugs (and alcohol) landscape in your local area

RDHP Drugs needs assessment, 2023 describes local harm, need and unmet need.

Headlines include:

• Prevalence
  • Southampton has broadly similar levels of opiate and/or crack use compared to England, but higher levels when compared regionally
• Harm
  • The drug-related death rate in Southampton is similar to the national rate and comparable local authorities¹. Nevertheless, we continue to be vigilant and work to reduce our rate.
  • 593 children live with a parent with Opiate Dependency
  • Southampton has high levels of drug related crime incidence, prevalence and harm
• Services
  • Breaking Drug Supply
    • Southampton has high levels of active drug networks
    • Further collaborative work is required to better understand the impacts of, and evidence the activity undertaken to reduce, crime and harm
  • Treatment
    • Unmet need - Generally good.
    • Successful completions improving.
    • For both we need to better understand and focus on our rate for young people and adults who use non-opiates.

1 - When compared to Upper Tier or Unitary Authorities which are also in the fourth most deprived decile (10^th) of local authority populations.

Partnership Workplan

• Earlier this year the Partnership published Annual progress report and delivery plan. It describes progress in 2023 plans for 2024/25. It includes each of the 3 national priorities, and each of the national commitments for each priority.
• Emerging threats - The Partnership oversees work to identify and address emerging threats. We have strong multiagency working and collaborate across Hampshire to share, assess and respond to information about new or increased harm and threats.  The Hampshire Drug Information System monitors the availability, purity and harm caused by illicit drugs including the presence and use of synthetic opioids.
• We continue to monitor, audit and learn from drug related deaths and non-fatal overdoses too.

Progress of RDHP delivery since its establishment

1. Summary of the measures set out in the National Combating Drugs Outcomes Framework
2. Local measures

Our most recent annual scorecard of data indicators is Annual Local Outcomes Framework May 2024.

Most recent, provisional data (Jun 24) is restricted. We cannot share exact numbers. We can share that it tells us that, since the March 2022 baseline, Southampton has:

• A 22% increase in the number of adults accessing structured treatment [all substance categories] (England 10.0%)
  • 5% increase of females (Eng 7.7%)
  • 8% increase of males (Eng 11.1%)
  • 5% increase in people who use alcohol only (Eng 14.7%)
  • 87% increase in people who use non-opiates and alcohol (Eng 26.6%)
  • 3% increase in people who use non-opiates only (no crack) (Eng 27.1%)
  • 0% increase in people who use opiates and crack (Eng 2.0%)
  • 9% increase in people who use crack (no opiates) (Eng 53.1%)
  • But a -11.4% decrease in the number of people who use opiates (Eng -5.4%)
• Unmet need - Southampton’s rates of unmet need are lower than England and regionally for all substance categories apart from Alcohol Only. This may be partly due to particularly thorough work by University Hospitals Southampton NHS Trust to check for alcohol-related risks or harm in all inpatients, to help the Trust to provide good care.  This means all measures which are based on our hospital coding is affected, like our estimated prevalence rate. It is likely to be higher than other areas where they do not have the same patient checks in place.
• Continuity of Care - Rolling 12-month data tells us Southampton has increased the percentage of people who access community drug and alcohol treatment following discharge from the secure estate by 9% .
• Successful Completions - When comparing against March 22 baseline and current national performance, Southampton’s most recent successful completion rates are better than national for all substance use categories and higher than baseline for all but Crack (no opiates) and non-opiates and alcohol (the numbers of people accessing treatment for crack (no opiates) and non-opiates and alcohol have increased by 145.9% and 87% respectively).

Police/ Community Safety

• Our Annual Local Outcomes Framework May 2024 also considers measures to evidence impact of interventions to reduce drug supply chains, for example;
  • a downward trend in the number of active drug networks in our city
  • Volume of drug seizures within Southampton shows the work our police force takes to take harmful drugs out of circulation
  • Number of drugs intelligence (CPI) submissions shows good sharing of information and intelligence

Partnership involvement of people impacted by illicit drug use

1. The Partnership has a public facing webpage that includes links to our needs assessment, delivery plan, progress report and Local Outcomes Framework scorecard.
2. The Partnership has two joint Public Involvement Leads, who actively champion public involvement.
3. For our latest Partnership review of Public Involvement, in March 2024, the Partnership scoped how members include people with lived experience in the development or delivery of services. This identified a range of initiatives and interventions including:
   • Peer suggested groups
   • Peer/volunteer training including seeking views and experiences from those engaging with training
   • Youth ambassadors
   • Peer-led carer services guided by feedback and needs of those who are seeking support.
   • Service User Involvement Leads
   • ‘Have your say’ surveys
   • Service user involvement in service steering groups
   • ‘Engaging people on Probation’ manager
   • Drug and Alcohol service attendance at public events
   • Council led resident engagement and consultation e.g. Community Safety Survey; Hate Crime Survey; Southampton Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation; Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy Consultation; Consultation on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Strategy.
   • SCC People’s Panel
   • SCC Tenancy Engagement
   • Healthwatch
4. Adult Drug and Alcohol Health Needs Assessment (2024) Southampton City Council has commissioned an Independent provider to complete a comprehensive needs assessment, with qualitative and quantitative information to identify unmet need and what the evidence suggests might be helpful to meet that need.
5. Independent Peer-led Support Service (IPSS) Southampton City Council has commissioned a service to evaluate local drug and alcohol recovery and support communities and services, including those both non-commissioned and commissioned services. This will be the first step in recovery support and involvement. It might lead on to a bespoke peer-led support service for the city, depending on the findings and available funding. National funding to Local Authorities for drug (and alcohol) services is currently only confirmed to 31 March 2025.
6. Commissioning Quality Standards for service users and wider public involvement inform commissioning.