Wigan's drug and alcohol treatment services to get £1.6m boost to help more people

The Government has announced it is allocating almost £267m to local authorities across England next year to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.

This will allow councils to recruit more specialised staff to work with people with drug and alcohol problems, as well as support more prison leavers into treatment and recovery services.

Wigan Council is still developing plans for how it will use its £1,686,225, with a proportion of the funding to be allocated to drug and alcohol treatment provider We Are With You to enhance existing service provision.

Alongside this, a further £74,557 will go towards funding inpatient detoxification provision in 2024-25.

Rachael Musgrave, Wigan’s director of public health, said: “This funding is a huge boost and will help us to further develop drug and alcohol services across Wigan borough, enabling more individuals and families to access support and engage in treatment.

“It will allow us to increase the number of drug and alcohol treatment places available locally and enhance our existing workforce to support the delivery of treatment interventions and, ultimately, aid more people to recover – reducing the devastating impacts linked to drug and alcohol use.”

The Government hopes the national scheme will see more people benefit from residential rehabilitation or inpatient detoxification, while improvements to recovery services will sustain treatment and reduce relapse rates.

It also aims to reduce crime, after a review by Prof Dame Carol Black, independent adviser to the Government on combating drug misuse, found the best way to tackle serious crimes linked to drug use was by boosting the capacity of the treatment and recovery system.

Health Minister Neil O’Brien said: “Drug addiction drives about half of all crimes, so by investing in high quality and greater availability of treatment we can reduce crime rates and save lives.

“We aim to raise the number of people getting drug and alcohol treatment to a record high by investing through the long-term investment we’ve been making over the last three years.

“Today’s allocations will see £267m go directly to local authorities and their partners to improve services, increase capacity and quality of treatment and recovery systems, and is based on the recommendations made by Dame Carol Black in her independent review.”