REDCAR AND CLEVELAND ADULT DRUGS JOINT COMMISSIONING GROUP

Minutes of meeting held MAY 14 th 2009

ATTENDED

Peter Price Director of Public Health PCT (Chair of JCG)

Viki Whelan Joint Commissioning Manager, R & C PCT

Helen Armstrong SCP Co-ordinator (Drugs)

John Liddell NTA Deputy Regional Manager

Susan Pashley Service Development Manager, R & C PCT

Richard Parker Reducing Re-offending Manager

Pauline Lisle Supporting People

Terry Doyle Service User Co-ordinator

John Lambert Vulnerable children's manager

Russell Portues Assistant Director Probation

GUEST SPEAKERS

Amanda Hancock CRI

Peter Clark Job Centre Plus

1. APOLOGIES:

Allia Hussain PCT Finance

John Stamp PCT Mental Health

Ken McGladrie Local Authority Commissioning (Mental Health)

Mary Mohan Local Authority Commissioning (Mental Health)

2. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

Agreed

MATTERS ARISING / ACTIONS UNDERTAKEN

Amendment - Laura Watson from Supporting People attended the meeting

All actions undertaken or listed within agenda

4. JOB CENTRE PLUS

Peter Clark - District Coordinator for NE Job Centre Plus, Peter explained his role was to coordinate the implementation of raising drug awareness amongst Job Centre Plus staff and developing processes to refer identified individuals into treatment.

The referral route within Redcar and Cleveland has been established and CRI are the single point of contact.

Peter has visited CRI, The Helen Project and the Treatment and Care Group.

If and when an individual identifies themselves as a PDU the staff would make a referral.

At this stage the referral is voluntary and no sanctions will be imposed if they fail to attend appointments with the treatment provider.

Peter sees this as the starting point to increasing partnership work between the Job Centre and the treatment agencies, as the Welfare reform bill goes through parliament processes may change and the remit expand to possibly include sanctions etc.

The Welfare reform bill also suggests the development of a specialist benefit that all PDUs would be moved onto this will ensure that where drug use is a barrier to work PDUs can access treatment packages that will assist to address their problems and improve employability.

Job Centre Plus will continue to work with treatment agencies to identify pathways into improving access to employment and training.

The group agreed that this was a positive move in improving links with the Job Centre.

Peters contact details are - [email address]

5. PEER MENTORING

Amanda Hancock gave a presentation on the peer mentoring scheme.

This scheme was developed to assist PDUs make the transition from Service User to Service provider either via volunteering, peer mentoring or accessing employment within the drugs field.

The £22,000 awarded via the group has assisted CRI to get the first cohort of mentors through the training programme

Amanda explained the process -

Placements have been secured with

Fulcrum - developing service user group

Lifeline - Assertive outreach / HEP c campaign / Needle ex

On track

Second Chance scheme - Coaching

CRI - Peer mentoring

Each applicant would be matched to a placement and receive ongoing supervision and review of progress.

1^ST Cohort commenced Feb 09, 12 applicants, 10 started and 6 will complete the course.

THE FUTURE

A discussion took place around the continued sustainability of the scheme. Amanda explained that CRI are reviewing the scheme with a view to rolling it out across the Tees area, this would reduce costs for all areas and secure sustainability, failing that we would need t explore funding streams to sustain the scheme for the future.

TD gave some Service User feedback from the 1^st cohort.

Some applicants felt frustrated that they are not yet mentoring.

SUs enjoyed the interactive sessions but found the evidence gathering part of the course was to intense for them

The group had a discussion around the collection of evidence and the intensity of the accredited side of the course. Amanda Stressed that a soft skills assessment was undertaken with applicants to ensure they had the skills to complete the accredited side and where extra support is required this would be made available. Discussions took place around having 2 streams one accredited and one not however it was felt that individuals required the full training including the accreditation in order to fully understand the role it also reduced the business risk in that mentors would be qualified.

It was agreed that any applicant would be offered full support to get through the course and Amanda would explore agencies that could assist in this area.

Action - Amanda to be re invited back to the group in Aug / Sept to provide update on sustainability and future cohort training

6. SERVICE USER / CARER UPDATE

Terry Doyle's service user and co-ordinator report was circulated with the agenda.

Terry's report was noted.

A discussion took place around the Hep C campaign media coverage, ITV was due to air an abridged version tonight a 6pm.

7. ORAL HEALTH

SP tabled a briefing paper on Oral Health. The paper suggests that oral health amongst PDUs was poor due the effects of their drug taking and the limited access to Dentists, one way to assist this would be to provide chewing gum which has been proven to reduce cavities and improve dental hygiene, the paper proposed the group fund an initiative to provide chewing gum to all PDUs.

The group agreed that it was committed to improving Oral health and the recommendations of the paper in principle. However, stated that further work and evidence was required. SP to link with the PCT Dental lead and further report to the next JCG.

8. ALCOHOL UPDATE

VW tabled a report on Alcohol. The report set out current services, some data on numbers in treatment, referrals etc , budget information and some recommendations for the group. The group agreed that VW could explore the recruitment of a consultant to undertake some work on current services mapped against models of care and effective practice, capacity, consultation with SUs Carers providers and stakeholders.

VW to action and Agenda on next months JCG.

DIP caseload - currently 140

dashboard target 2 85%

DRRs starts - no April data yet

completions - no April data yet

Numbers in effective treatment

PDUs - 645

All Drug Users over 18 - 789

Retained more that 12 weeks - 88%

TOPs

STARTS - 92%

REVIEWS - 38.5%

EXITS - 50%

10. FINANCE

VW and PP informed the group that the finance situation was still unresolved. We had received notification that we had a 80K under spend however this was withdrawn as further calculations identified a 104K under spend. The Finance unit is looking into this and hopefully a final report can be tabled at the next JCG.

09/10 budget PCT allocations need to be ratified

11. AOB

NTA review had been received, circulated and accepted by the group.

NEXT MEETING TO BE HELD AT 1pm LANGBAURGH HOUSE BOARD ROOM THURSDAY June 11^th 09