DWP Drugs Strategy Colin Wilkie-Jones

1. DWP Drugs StrategyColin Wilkie-Jones

2. What are we trying to achieve through a recovery and reintegration agenda in DWP? • An increase in numbers of problem drug users on benefits who: • take up treatment; • are successful in their recovery journey (however they choose to define it); • And, ultimately, find employment, which is itself a recognised treatment pathway.

3. Scale of the problem • Estimated 270,000 (80%) of PDUS on benefits in England – spread across JSA, ESA/IB, IS • Of which around 120k (50%) not in treatment at any one time, many of whom will be seen regularly by JCP staff • Over 11,000 people per year participate in progress2work in England – around 7% of treatment population, of whom 15 to 20% find employment • Many have multiple barriers to overcome to find employment eg ex-offenders, homeless, serious mental health issues etc

4. Current Strategy - England • Improved partnership working • DoH funded drugs co-ordinators in every JCP Plus district – Apr 2009 • treatment referral pathway (voluntary) – Apr ’09 • Employer engagement strategy – to be developed 2010 • Engagement in system change & total place pilots • Additional support for problem drug users • GB wide retendering and expansion of progress2work Link-Up: Oct 2010 • Treatment Allowance and additional support programme in Welfare Reform Drugs Pilots (5 areas for two years from Oct 2010) • Rights and responsibilities agenda • Additional powers to support identification referral to mandatory activity in pilot areas, but no requirement to submit to treatment • Introduce mandatory referral to treatment discussion- Oct 2010

5. Partnership Working - Drugs co-ordinators • Introduced in England in April 2009 • Key aspects of role (single point of contact) • People: to train JCP staff to sensitively identify and refer PDUs to treatment discussions • Partnership: to foster good partnership links in the wider drugs sector and raise awareness of employment support • Performance: to facilitate improvement in treatment starts, job outcomes and progress2work referrals and outcomes • Good awareness in, and well received by wider drugs sector • More to be done to consistently define and implement role across • Not yet seeing significant increases in either treatment or employment starts for PDUs on benefits

6. Partnership Working – Treatment referral pathway • Introduced in England in April 2009 on voluntary basis for ESA and JSA customers • Slow start – around 2500 customers identified Apr-Nov 2009 • Over 1600 in treatment and 800 referred to a treatment discussion, of which over 200 known to have attended • For context - 60k estimated PDUs on JSA, half of whom not in treatment. • Whilst many in regular contact with advisers only just over 1% of those not in treatment identified • Not clear if adviser training/performance issue or whether not practical/possible to identify large numbers • Calls into question likely effectiveness of any policy to mandate customers to treatment discussions

7. Additional Support - Progress2work-LinkUp • Currently two programmes p2w (PDUs) & Link-Up (alcohol misuse, offenders and homeless) • Becomes single merged programme • Link Up extended GB wide (currently 40% coverage). • Significant additional investment concentrated in London (£8.5m or 8500 places over 5 years) • Reduction from 140 to 18 contracts – competition ongoing • Contracts to start Oct 2010 and run for 5 years • Better performance management and reduction in variation • Increase market penetration of treatment population by P2W (7% currently, but varies from 2% to 20% by JCP district) • Increase conversion rate of P2W starts to sustained jobs (15-20% currently, but varies from 1% to 50% by contract) • In support of this would be good to see P2W referrals more embedded in locally commissioned treatment system

8. Additional Support - Treatment Allowance (Pilots) • Offered on voluntary (random assignment) basis to PDUs in Tier 3 and 4 treatment • Allowance payable up to 12 months - if remain in treatment and take advantage of additional support • Removes some of normal conditions of benefit entitlement (e.g. signing on) - allowing time and space to focus on recovery. • Return to mainstream conditionality if treatment stopped shows • To avoid stigma, paperwork refers to JSA/ESA 8

9. Additional Support – Pilot Support Programme • voluntary • delivered using a caseworker model • Up to 30 hours activity (inc treatment) dependent on needs • rehabilitation plan developed and progress monitored on using ‘distance travelled approach’ • Focus on barriers to employment: employability; expectations of employment; skills & training; physical & mental health; accommodation; criminal behaviour; managing money; drug and alcohol misuse; building relationships • Open to claimants at any point in treatment journey • Initial emphasis on stability • Moving on to labour market engagement similar to P2W

10. Rights & Responsibilities - Mandatory referrals • Implementation in England in October 2010 • National implementation outside drug pilot areas • JSA and ESA customers in England only, using existing legislation • Customers who have volunteered both problem drug use and that they are not in treatment • Effective identification through voluntary system a prerequisite – currently not the case, so likely to only affect small numbers • If you don’t admit drug use, you can’t be mandated

11. Rights & Responsibilities – Pilot Areas • Mandatory referral to assessments and treatment awareness programme for those not in treatment, to encourage take-up • Power to ask questions about drug use and treatment • Power to share data from criminal justice system to aid identification of PDUS not in treatment and take-up of in-treatment support • Power to refer to assessment if JCP adviser has ‘reasonable grounds for suspicion’. • May well prove unworkable in practice and will affect very small numbers • Drug tests (voluntary & mandatory) for even smaller numbers of such customers not attending assessments.

12. Assessments & Treatment Awareness Programme • Assessments • Delivered by specialist drug treatment worker based on Drug Intervention Programme (DIP) Model • Two assessments over a period of weeks (giving time for reflection): • Exploring past history of both drug use and treatment • Providing information on treatment and harm reduction • Selling benefits for treatment and recovery • Treatment Awareness Programme • 6 x 2 hour group sessions (DWP funded) over 6 weeks • Delivered by specialist drug treatment workers in conjunction with service users (‘experts by experience’) • Main focus selling the benefits of treatment and recovery

13. Sanctions • JSA- 2 weeks in first instance, then four weeks for each subsequent sanction until complies with requirement. • ESA – loss of half of the ‘work related activity’ component for the first 4 weeks, then the entire component until complies with requirement • Not new for this group – likely to be sanctioned a lot in current JSA regime. In reality take months to administer • Vulnerable groups (including those with dependent children) qualify for hardship payments • As no loss of underlying benefit entitlement, sanctions shouldn’t result in loss of passported benefits (ie housing or council tax benefits). However, can happen in practice, and we are working with colleagues to address this.

14. Future Thinking • Looking to extend voluntary treatment referral pathways to all benefits, other drugs, and alcohol • Review of alcohol misuse and welfare state to be carried out and published in next year • Establish ‘what works’ for this customer group • Review commissioning strategy • Extending role of drug co-ordinators to cover alcohol misuse