NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026: annual progress update report 2024

National Mission to tackle drug-related deaths

Drug-related deaths remain a real challenge in Scotland, 2023 saw a 12% increase on 2022. Whilst drug misuse deaths in Scotland have generally been increasing over the last two decades, this is the second lowest number in the last six years.

Our National Mission on Drugs

A key strand of our national mission on drugs is the continued implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards for people who use drugs to support the consistent delivery of safe, accessible, high-quality drug treatment in Scotland. Public Health Scotland (PHS) published a report in July 2024 showing that, 90% of ADPs had been assessed to have implemented standards 1-5 and 91% of standards 6-10 assessed as partially implemented.

Our NHS Recovery Plan committed to ensure there are sufficient outreach facilities, programmes and residential rehabilitation in place for people who use drugs. Referrals to residential rehabilitation continue to increase and the aim to be providing 1000 publicly-funded placements per year in expanded capacity by the end of the Parliament remains on-track.

The past year has seen key actions undertaken as part of our “National Mission on drugs”, including:

• Supported the UK’s first safer drug consumption facility – which the international evidence tells us will help save lives – this is being progressed by Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership and will open this winter.
• Continued to work closely with the Home Office to support the establishment of Scotland’s first drug checking facilities in Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen along with a national testing laboratory.
• Provided £13m funding each year to community and grass-roots organisations, supporting over 300 projects across Scotland and 37,000 people.
• Invested £38m to expand residential rehab capacity – 8 projects across Scotland will provide 140 more beds by 2025/26, boosting the current rehab capacity in Scotland.
• Widened access to life-saving Naloxone with record high investment of more than £4m (since the start of NM). A total of 30,250 take home naloxone kits were supplied in the financial year 2023/24, the highest annual total since the beginning of the National Naloxone Programme. According to the latest statistics (PHS quarterly report, 22 October), 76.2% of people at risk of opioid overdose have now been provided with a lifesaving kit. All frontline police officers carry it for emergency use as it was the first Police Force in the world to implement force-wide carriage.
• Continued to drive implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards across the country.
• Supported connection and community- whether that’s through recovery communities, family networks or groups for people experiencing harms, and put them at the heart of our response through the National Collaborative’s Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use.
• Continued to improve the whole-system response for people experiencing substance use and their families, including women and people with multiple and complex needs through cross-government collaboration and stakeholder engagement to deliver our families framework, Mental Health and Substance Use joint-working protocol and Standards for Young People.