The creation of a new locally-led public health service represents a chance to properly integrate drug treatment and recovery services in England, said Paul Hayes, Chief Executive of the NTA.

He told drugs workers that giving responsibility for commissioning drug and alcohol services to directors of public health, employed by local authorities, offered a real opportunity to bring together treatment provision and the wide range of local services that help sustain recovery.  

The government's plans are due to come into effect in April 2013 when the NTA is wound up and its key functions merged with other organisations into a new umbrella body, Public Health England.

Speaking to the annual DrugScope conference, Mr Hayes said the national role of PHE would be complemented by the local role of Health and Wellbeing Boards, and supplemented by local Police and Crime Commissioners.

Local authorities already had expertise in housing, education and employment services that complemented treatment efforts to put dependent drug users back on the road to recovery, he said.

The government's Drug Strategy had already identified the lack of jobs and houses to sustain long-term recovery as a significant drag on the effectiveness of treatment.

Together, Boards and Commissioners should ensure there was a continuing local focus on the value of treatment and recovery services in tackling worklessness, cutting drug-related crime, and combating the other social harms of addiction, he said.  

Mr Hayes said the Home Office told parliament last week that the one-third fall in acquisitive crime over the past decade was partly attributable to the expansion of treatment services. The NTA's own opinion polling showed that two-thirds of the general public feared crime would increase if treatment for problem drug users was not available.

Despite cutback across Whitehall and local government, Mr Hayes said the level of central government funding for drug treatment had been maintained in recent years.

He acknowledged there would be pressure on resources in future, but warned local authorities that to disinvest from local support services would risk long-term damage to their most deprived communities, where drug addiction, worklessness and crime were concentrated.  

Lord Henley. Minister of State for Crime Reduction at the Home Office, told the conference the sector still had more to do to achieve the government's aim of "making recovery a reality."

However he acknowledged that "one-size does not fit all", that a range of treatment interventions should be available, and that the government took seriously its commitment to evidence-based advice.