Drug Deaths Taskforce response: cross government approach

26. Putting lived and living experience at the heart of what we do: The National Collaborative and our approach

26.1 National Collaborative

Scottish Government have established the National Collaborative to integrate human rights into drug and alcohol policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The National Collaborative will develop and apply a human rights-based approach to the development of a Charter of Rights and Implementation Framework. The purpose of the National Collaborative is twofold:

1. To empower people affected by problem substance use to enable their voices, and critically their rights, to be acted upon in policy and decision-making concerning the design, delivery and regulation of drug and alcohol services at a national level.

2. To set out how the rights to be included in the forthcoming Human Rights Bill can be effectively implemented to improve the lives of people affected by problem substance use. The Human Rights Bill will include many rights that are relevant for people affected by problem substance use including the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and others such as the right to an adequate standard of living, will address the social determinants of problem substance use.

The Charter of Rights for people affected by problem substance use will be co-designed through interactions between people affected by problem substance use, service providers and government. It will directly support people to know and understand their rights as well as giving service providers and government a tool to support the continuous improvements of the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of such services.

The Human Rights Bill will change the landscape within which services operate by incorporating international recognised human rights into Scots law. This means that people will be able to claim and enforce rights in different ways including, as a last resort, in a Scottish Court. Whilst the Stigma Action Plan will focus on changing the environment in which people with problem substance use have to navigate, the National Collaborative will empower them to demand the support and services they need.