Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) 2021/22 annual returns: summary report

2. Aims and Methodology

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 2021/22 financial year in order to capture progress against the Rights, Respect and Recovery strategy including the Drug Deaths Task Force emergency response paper during this timeframe. This survey was designed to reflect areas of ADP activity that are not reported on elsewhere (e.g. Medication Assisted Treatment standards), and so will not reflect the totality of ADP work. Questions were developed in consultation with policy officials and adapted from previous ADP annual reporting mechanisms.

The survey comprised of 50 questions^[2], including questions on ‘Education and Prevention’; ‘Treatment and Recovery’; ‘Getting it Right for Children, Young People and Families’; and ‘a Public Health Approach to Justice’. 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 do not reflect expectations of what should be in place. The full survey is available in Appendix A.

ADP lead officers were asked to email back their response within 33 working days. ADPs who 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 instructed to obtain ADP level sign off as confirmed by the ADP chair. Where this was not clear, follow-up emails were sent to individual ADPs to determine the level of sign-off received.

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

Data was collected between the 21^st June and 5^th August 2022^[3].