Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) 2022/23 Annual Survey

Data and Methodology

Survey design and data collection

A survey was sent by email to all 30 Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) in Scotland to better understand service delivery and the local challenges faced by ADPs. ADPs are responsible for developing local strategies to deliver national outcomes and commissioning services for problem drug and alcohol use in Scotland.

The survey was designed to provide an overview of how ADPs responded to the needs of individuals in their area. Questions related to the 2022/23 financial year and were intended to reflect areas of ADP activity that are not reported on elsewhere, and so do not reflect the totality of ADP work. Questions were adapted from previous ADP annual reporting mechanisms and developed in consultation with policy officials and evaluation leads at Public Health Scotland. Questions were piloted with a number of ADPs before they survey was issued.

The survey comprised 41 questions, and adapted the six outcomes and cross-cutting priorities of the National Mission Plan to facilitate data collection. While these questions were mainly multiple choice, the survey also included a number of open text questions in order to gather more detail on responses and gain a deeper understanding of the specific context within each ADP area. Respondents to the survey were reminded that multiple choice options available were provided for ease of completion and did not reflect expectations of what should be in place. The full 2022/23 survey is available from the supporting documents page alongside this report.

The survey was in the field between 3 May and 27 June 2023. The ADPs that had not completed the survey within this time were contacted by policy officials and/or a member of the analytical team to ensure they had opportunity to be included in this research.

In submitting their return, ADPs were asked to obtain ADP and Integration Joint Board (IJB) level sign off. A number of ADPs were unable to provide IJB sign-off of their response in advance of the date of this publication due to meetings being held out with the timescale for reporting.

ADPs were encouraged to publish their own returns as part of their individual annual reporting.

Grouping of categories and age bands

A number of survey questions where respondents were presented a very detailed list of options of activities or services taking place in their area and options to indicate for which groups these are available. For reporting purposes, similar activities/services/groups have been combined (with advice being sought from policy officials on the most meaningful grouping of categories). Footnotes have been included in the report outlining the approach taken where categories have been combined in the analysis presented.

Source data

Source data for this publication are available on request from substanceuseanalyticalteam@gov.scot.