Commissioning for Recovery – the essential guide to commissioning recovery-oriented treatment
A new guide to enable local drug action teams help drug users achieve and sustain recovery from their addiction was launched last month by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA).
Published by the NTA, Commissioning for Recovery is an essential guide for drug action teams in England, which summarises the best of current commissioning practice in the drug treatment field. This first publication, which is part of a core suite of guidance for partnerships on commissioning recovery-oriented services, distils what partnerships should know in order to deliver effective treatment, making clear what they could be doing and how, to be up there with the best.
It articulates the ambition of the Drug Strategy, which called for an increased focus on improving outcomes for individuals in treatment, with hard-headed advice to ensure that local treatment needs are met, so service users recover as soon as practicable and re-integrate back into society as well as demonstrating how treatment is the first step on the road to recovery.
The NTA’s Business Plan for 2009/10 pledged that the organisation’s top priority would be to re-orientate the treatment system to focus on helping service users achieve and sustain recovery. Commissioning for Recovery is a direct result of that pledge.
In recent years the availability, capacity and effectiveness of treatment have expanded enormously. Many would argue that the framework for drug treatment services first set out in Models of Care in 2002, is now out of date and it is time to review the situation and consider replacing it with another that better reflects the recovery-oriented system that has developed since and the ambitions and aspirations of those who work in it and are served by it. So, along side Commissioning for Recovery, the NTA is starting work to refresh the national framework and a draft Recovery Framework will be sent out for consultation later this year.
Do you need an NTA representative to speak at or attend your event?
Whenever we can, the NTA is happy to provide speakers to talk about the work of the NTA or drug treatment in general at meetings or conferences. To request an NTA speaker click here.
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