Person centred approaches

We published the Drug Deaths Taskforce response: cross government approach (January 2023) as a response to the Taskforce recommendations. This holistic approach considers how different systems and services can work better together and serve the needs of specific groups.

Education and prevention

Our approach to prevention includes work with young people, providing early access to support and addressing the supply of harmful drugs.

Education and prevention is integral to our approach to reducing the number of young people who use drugs. As identified in our literature and evidence review (November 2021), we know that many people in Scotland start their drug and alcohol use at an early age.

We published personal and social education review (2019). Under the heading of ‘risk taking behaviours’, substance use is one of the priority areas a school nurse can support young people with.

We are supporting our partners Winning Scotland to deliver Planet Youth. This is an evidence-based model that encourages cultural and structural change for substance use prevention.

Drugs and alcohol will feature in the population health framework which takes a cross-government and cross-sector approach to improve the key building blocks of health and wellbeing.

Children and families

Scotland made The Promise in 2020, following the Independent Care Review. It outlined that the government must take a more flexible, whole family approach to supporting children and young people living with parents with substance use dependency.

We published the improving holistic family support framework in 2021. The framework sets out that family members affected by a loved one’s substance use should receive consistent support in their own right.

We published a rapid review of the evidence on whole family approaches (July 2023) to family support in Scotland.

Women

As outlined in the Drug Deaths Taskforce women’s report (November 2021), women affected by substance use often have poor physical and mental health and face additional barriers and stigma when trying to access support. This can be particularly acute for women with children.

We are taking specific steps to implement a gendered approach across the work of the National Mission.

Our Supporting Women, Reducing Harm Short Life Working Group is developing a good practice guide for anyone working with women and infants affected by substance use during the perinatal period.

Justice system

We are strengthening pathways between prison, police custody and community services so that consistent care can be offered as people move between locations.

We reviewed Drug Treatment and Testing Orders and Community Payback Orders with drug treatment requirements, in community sentencing options for people with substance use problems (August 2023).

The Scottish Government and consecutive Scottish Ministers have called on the UK Government for a review of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and how it could be changed to enable a public health approach to the drugs emergency in Scotland.

For a prison to rehab pathway we have made National Mission funding available to develop residential rehabilitation services and associated aftercare, that allows access to residential rehabilitation immediately on release from prison. The Prison to Rehab protocol (March 2023) sets out the process for prison based staff, residential rehabilitation providers and individuals on accessing the Prison to Rehab pathway.

Tackling drug supply and disrupting serious organised crime groups is a priority for the Scottish Government. Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime strategy (Feb 2022) identifies the need to make greater use of the Scottish Multi Agency Strategic Threat Assessment to ensure that the work to disrupt Serious Organised Crime (SOC) is targeted at the threats that cause the most harm.

The work to implement the strategy is supported by the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and a wide range of organisations across the public, private and third sectors.

Housing

We are working to strengthen partnerships between health, homelessness and frontline services to improve outcomes. The Housing Bill includes new prevention duties on public bodies, including justice, health and social care. The new duties also seek to improve the use of case co-ordination where a person has multiple and complex needs, including drug dependency.

We published a review of international evidence on recovery housing (November 2023) relevant to a Scottish context.

We issue grant funding under the Dual Housing Support Fund. This provides immediate support to people in receipt of social security payments who want to keep their core tenancy when going into residential rehabilitation.

Mental health

We know that often people affected by substance use are also struggling with their mental health and wellbeing, and that accessing treatment for co-occurring conditions can sometimes be extremely difficult.

We commissioned a rapid review into mental health and substance use services ‘The Way Ahead’ which identified key recommendations to improve care for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use. The literature and evidence review and the results of a survey of people working in drug and alcohol services conducted as part of this review were published in November 2022.

Guidance for responding to substance use on mental health in-patient wards (March 2024). seeks to ensure both patient and staff safety, whilst also setting clear guidelines for the prevention and response to substance use on in-patient wards.

The mental health strategy (March 2017) has specific actions on how to take a person-centred approach to care. Heathcare Improvement Scotland published the National Mental Health and Substance Use Protocol (September 2024).

Digital

We have provided funding to Digital Lifelines Scotland for the provision of mobile phones, tablets, and training specifically for people at risk of drug harms. We believe digital connectivity through lifeline services is an essential part of modern life, and for people who need access to drug-related services it could be a life saver.

Human rights and culture change

We are committed to addressing health inequalities and strengthening the rights and advocacy for people affected by substance use.

Stigma prevents people from accessing the treatment and support they need and are entitled to. We developed a National Stigma Action Plan (January 2023) which outlined our plan to co-design, a National Programme to tackle stigma with people affected by substance use.

We are also supporting the National Collaborative, a network of people affected by substance use. They integrate human rights and drugs policy and ensure people are involved in decisions about the design, delivery and monitoring of services.

Publication of a National Collaborative Roadmap (March 2022) was supported by the Scottish Government and facilitated by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland. After broad consultation with stakeholders, this set out plans to co-design a Charter of Rights.

We published an analysis report of feedback from our call for evidence (November 2023). We used this information to inform the draft outline Charter of Rights (December 2023). The final Charter of Rights launched in December 2024.

We developed a participation handbook (March 2024) as part of Scotland’s Open Government commitments to improve the way people are involved in policymaking and service delivery.

We published the final Charter of Rights for people affected by substance use (December 2024).

Alcohol and drugs